Syria Crisis Spilling Over Into Regional Conflict

Syria is in the middle of a civil war that is spilling over its borders, says Marc Lynch, author of a new book “The Arab Uprising: The Unfinished Revolutions of the New Middle East”.

Lynch tells host Marco Werman there’s still a “dim hope” of a negotiated settlement, despite incidents like the one this week where Syrian armed forces fired across the border, killing at least two refugees in Turkey.

“I do see it as a sign of desperation. He (Syrian President Bashar al-Assad ) sees that time is running out and he’s trying to kill his way to victory, and it’s not working,” says Lynch.

Lynch, incidentally, is credited with coining the phrase “Arab Spring”. He’s not fond of the term, but admits he might have been one of the first to have used it.

“What the concept of the Arab Spring suggests is that the entire region was frozen until then, and suddenly it melted. But what I’ve been seeing and what I’ve been describing is much more this rising tide of protests and mobilization over a very long time,” Lynch says.

He adds, “It’s not like the Arabs just woke up. They’ve been awake for a long time. They’ve just been struggling against these authoritarian repressive regime that they couldn’t defeat.”