“For the past couple months, it’s seemed as if everyone has been waiting on two dramatic developments in the Middle East – the long-delayed fall of Bashar Assad in Syria, and the eruption of a third intifada in the West Bank. Based on the events of recent weeks, it would seem the former is closer than the latter.

The most reliable evidence of Assad’s deteriorating position was the firing of Scud missiles at rebel strongholds in Syria’s north. In its bag of desperate measures, the Scud is the regime’s penultimate resource, superseded only by the use of chemical and biological weapons against the opposition forces – which have not been tried because of the stern warnings issued by the international community. The Syrian army has already tried attacks by fighter planes, fuel-air explosives, artillery barrages and tank fire.”

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