“A ‘Friends of Syria’ meeting in Tunis on Friday will gather Western and Arab leaders with Assad’s opponents. But Russia has rejected any talks that do not include the Syrian government. It supports Assad’s referendum on reform, to be held on Sunday. The opposition and their foreign backers call that vote a joke.

China, too, has yet to accept an invitation to Tunis and says it wants all sides to stop fighting and open negotiations.

For many, Syria’s internal conflict is turning into a proxy war between rival international groupings, between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims in the Middle East and, globally, along Cold War lines between democracies and authoritarian leaders.

The weapons range from sanctions, economic and political, to arms shipments, overt and covert, for rival sides. In time, some troops, perhaps branded peacekeepers, might join the discreet advisers, spies and secret forces who may already be in action.”

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