Guardian: "Syria's deadlock can be broken only by an arms embargo"

Jonathan Steele, a columnist and foreign policy expert for The Guardian daily, writes in an article entitled "Syria's deadlock can be broken only by an arms embargo" that despite the mounting death toll in Syria, the Syrian government still believes it can win through superior force and the mass detention of activists. "Its fallback is to hold out indefinitely in Damascus and Aleppo even if totally disarming the opposition proves impossible and other parts of the country are mired in perpetual insurgency. For its part the rebels also count on victory. They bank on a Libyan-style NATO onslaught of massive air strikes once the US presidential election has passed. The CIA is already engaged in southern Turkey in funneling supplies to rebels, and the Turkish air force is gearing up for action," Steele writes, adding that Russia should call on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to withdraw his heavy weaponry from cities and that Moscow must make it clear that Russian military supplies will cease, if he does not comply.