Based on the recent developments in Damascus on November 28, 2012, the opposition’s and government forces’ armed stand-off in Syria rapidly flows into a sectarian civil war.

This is evidenced by blasting four cars in Jarman - one of the south-eastern regions of the Syrian capital inhabited predominantly by Druze and Christians. According to preliminary data, fifty-eight people were the victims of the terrorist acts. The remains of the ten have not yet been identified. More than one hundred and eighty people received wounds.

According to locals, the mining devices in cars were actuated by drivers-suicide bombers. The yields were such that in Jarman dozens of residential buildings, shops and other structures were destroyed. Two other, much less powerful explosions had earlier thundered at the entrance to the area.

It is worthy of note that, in Jarman there is no object or temporary post of the Syrian army and internal security forces. That is why crime victims were exclusively peaceful citizens, for the most part women and children.

Here more than 650,000 Druze and Christians live trading in agricultural products, producing food and consumer goods. Jarman is distinguished by numerous rows of shopping stalls and small markets, which attract large numbers of the Syrian capital’s people.

The area is a specific enclave within the south-eastern district of Damascus, where mostly the Sunnis live. Thus from the beginning of the tragic events in the country, the Druze and Christians living side by side in Jarman observed neutrality in the “Syrian revolution” and actively resisted the opposition’s attempts to engage them in the political or military struggle against the government. It’s only too natural that such Druze and Christian leaders’ position angered the neighboring Sunnis - the backbone of the opposition.

Provocations against the inhabitants of Jarman had also occurred before, but till the end of October 2012 they were not threatening. On October 29, extremists blew up the first truck-bomb. And although there were no casualties or damage, this terrorist act caused the creation in the region of civil defense committees to monitor the situation and interact with police.

The Syrian opposition hurried to accuse the Syrian authorities of involvement in terrorist acts in Jarman. An anonymous “field observer” said at great length the pan-Arab daily, Al-Sharq al-Awsat that “it is beneficial for the regime to aggravate the situation and heat up the sectarian conflict in the country”... And indeed, the influential London-based Arab newspaper itself has posted material on this crime without author and on a secondary page.

Along with this, as one of the leading topics Al-Sharq al-Awsat keeps discussing the soon upcoming conference of the Syrian National Congress in Istanbul, where under the auspices of Turkey and Qatar it is planned to achieve signing documents on the armed militant groups’ integration and creation of a single authority to control their actions.

As they say, “He who pays the piper calls the tune”... In this case, he who pays the armed struggle leads the opposition. An the latter must render an account of the money spent. And, it must be admitted, they have some “success”: hundreds of man-portable air defense systems have been deployed to Syria, and in the last two days alone they have shot down two military helicopters. In November, artillery means were illegally transferred to the country and in the Free Syria Army the first artillery battalion was formed. A lot of money were spent on miners-suicide bombers recruitment…

According to official data, this October the Syrian authorities transferred to the UN Security Council in New York one hundred and eight names of foreign mercenaries, captured and killed in Syria. In November, the new list already included one hundred and forty-eight people.

Homegrown criminals and religious extremists, foreign “soldiers of fortune”, live external interference in internal affairs, incitement of evil between faiths, the mine warfare... All this was in neighboring Lebanon at the beginning and during the civil war, in which Syria played a key game. Now, such a war is at the gate of Syria. Time will tell whether it will manage to come out the winner, maintaining the integrity and sovereignty.

We hope for better things. After all, other countries that have experienced recent years’ “Arab revolutions” achieved nothing but anarchy and chaos.