As celebratory gunfire was heard across liberated Syria, the diplomatic guns of Iran and Russia, in Doha to attend a major dialogue forum, fell silent, rendered powerless and irrelevant by events in Damascus.
Only 12 hours earlier the key external powers – Russia and Iran along with Turkey – had met five Arab states on the sidelines of the forum to issue a joint statement appealing for an end to military operations, preservation of Syria’s territorial integrity and consultations on a political solution between Bashar al-Assad’s regime and the opposition. It was a last attempt to retain a semblance of control over events, but the diplomats also anxiously discussed the fate of the Syrian president at the meeting, and whether there would be fighting on the streets of Damascus soon.
