A lawless world

Judging by the resumption of the Russian aerial bombing of the opposition forces in the south of Syria with a vengeance and the escalation of the Syrian offensives in the same area, the meeting between Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow on Wednesday did not go well.

Russia is now adding new conditions to the peace talks on Syria by insisting on lifting all international sanctions against Damascus before Moscow would do" business" on ending the Syrian conflict. Obviously, Moscow and Damascus are in a mood to drive a hard bargain with their "enemies" after scoring one military success against the opposition after the other.

What is even more important is US President Donald Trump's summit with his Russian counterpart Valdimir Putin in Helsinki on July 16. All indications suggest that President Putin wants to "finish off" the last battle in Syria before he meets with President Trump to avoid coming under pressure to stop the fighting in Syria.

President Trump does not have many options available to him even if he wanted to do something about ending the latest war scene in the south of Syria, which led to new waves of Syrian refugees and displaced persons numbering more than 300,000 and projected to multiply in the course of the next few days.

In retrospect, President Trump has put himself in a difficult position on Syria by not acting soon enough to stop the fighting in the Deraa province. Putin is now free to conclude the war in Syria on his own terms and will probably get away with it since neither the US nor the EU nations are putting up any resistance to this grand Russian design for Syria.

The international community is living in a lawless world, and the Syrian conflict is a prime example of how international norms and rules of justice can be trampled on for geopolitical gains.