Is Syria a Real Threat to the American Interests in the Middle East - Essay Example

In recent years, the political and social changes in Syria have had a massive impact on the country’s internal and external affairs. This paper discusses numerous activities and facts about Syria that threaten the US interests in the Middle East.

Around mid of the year 2012, the government of Syria declined the access of the UN observers to a site where mass killing was reported (Khan, 2012). According to the statistics reported by the Syrian opposition, up to 78 civilians were killed in that mass killing of which about 50 percent were children and women. The Syrian opposition accused the Syrian government of shelling that led to the mass killing. When asked, the government of Syria denied the responsibility and referred to the accusations as baseless allegations, though the accounts could not be verified because of the restricted observers and journalists. “Those responsible for perpetrating these crimes must be held to account. We cannot allow mass killing to become part of everyday reality in Syria” (Annan cited in Khan, 2012).

            Last year, the commencement of the street uprising among the Syrians has led to the development of a scattered and sprawling force of opposition that attempted to bring the President’s regime down. The White House spokesman Jay Carney noticed elements of threat for the US in the uprisings that he revealed in these words, “We’ve certainly noted that there are some elements of the opposition that are not necessarily friendly to the United States. They do not make up the bulk of the opposition, and the opposition is not entirely unified, as you know” (Carney cited in Childress, 2012).

In December 2012, the US joined the Gulf states, France, Turkey, and Britain to formally identify the opposition of Syria in the National Coalition as Syrian people’s legitimate representative (BBC, 2013). Syria and Turkey have placed a ban on providing air space to each other’s planes after five civilians were killed as a result of the Syrian mortar fire on the border of Turkey. President Obama then said that the National Coalition includes and represents the big step.