The protests and the unrest of local groups against President Assad’s regime since 2011 have created a frenzied situation where now many militant groups are active to carve out a power house of their own. The regime conducted numerous massive crackdowns to curtail the rebels, but the situation is becoming worse by the day.

The Assad regime blames Western powers for their clandestine role in fuelling the chaotic situation of their country. Some analysts also strongly believe this is apparently a continuation of Western policy similar to the recent multi-regime revolutions in other Middle Eastern region.

For instance, a cursory look over the fall of many recent regimes in Arab Spring like Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen and many others depicts a parallel result where the long-standing regimes could not survive even through strong resistance against the will of the great powers.

The armed groups have got significant momentum and strongholds in various parts of the Syria, particularly; the Al-Nusra Front with the support of Al-Qaeda is believed to be very strong in the northwestern part of the country.

However, from last two years the ISIL with the support of other small militant groups such as Jaysh Al-Jihad and Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade has significantly dominated the momentum and has become the strongest challenge to President Assad’s regime.

This complexity of the Syrian war has attracted the concerns of many powers in the civil war.

Initially, President Assad unsuccessfully relied on quelling the rebellion using state military, but the rebels proved more hardcore than he thought. Later, a significant move was made through the composition of local volunteer groups in 2014 known as National Defence Force of Syria mainly supported by the Hezbollah, Iran and Russia.

However, the war has noticeably become further intricate after the direct involvement of Turkey and Russia, apparently to help Syria achieve various strategic goals to win this war. This move has increased the likelihood of further involvement of many other Gulf countries which would of course, fuel the conflict.

It is also important to note here that since the fall of the Soviet Union, this is the first time two great powers, U.S. and Russia, have come face to face once again. Their ostensible reason in getting involved in this war could be anything, but their main reason is to contain each other.

The direct involvement of Russia in the conflict since 30 September 2015 has set the stage for of a yet another proxy war between the U.S. and the Russia. As a consequence, there are likely chances that this proxy war may shortly transform into a pro-world war involving many other countries in Syria.

The crisis is slowly drawing the sketch of Cold War era like situation when the Great Powers often came across certain circumstances where they only supported the proxies against each other to achieve their vested interests. Also, they never shied away from direct involvement if they had to, to achieve their goals.

Besides, Russia is a front line supporter of President Assad’s regime and has also blocked many serious Security Council resolutions against it.

Moreover, many political scientists believe the direct involvement of Russia through military installations along Syria’s Mediterranean coast and fierce aerial attacks against ISIL is an escalation towards a greater involvement of many other countries in this war notably, the use of Turkish bases by the US forces and the limited roles of Canada, Turkey, Australia and France in the war.

Even though it all seem symbolic at the moment, it definitely demonstrates that not only the U.S. is involved in the operation, but there are many others waiting for the right time to dive into the mess. As the West is finding it increasingly hard to contain Russia in Syria — keeping in mind their failure to protect Georgia and Ukraine — it is but a matter of time when this war on terrorists turns into a new Cold War with devastating results for the world peace.