I meant an ally in context of coalition against Daesh.
Yes, West has resources but not a will to be involved in another Near East conflict. They god discouraged by mess in Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan. They thought that not engaging in Syria they will be left alone. I have to admit that I was willing to try something new too, as not engaging this time. Surprise, surprise, without Western boots on the ground there is even a bigger mess. Mess in Syria and mess in Europe. ISIS wants to fight West to invoke Armageddon and end of days. Conversely, ordinary Syrians want to hid in Europe for safety and normal life.
It will depend on Russian's actions. They want to insert their influence helping Assad for sure. However they might be swayed to replace Assad with some form of new government.
They will be helpful in fight against Daesh, but surely destructive in post Daesh building of independent and democratic Syria. And who knows how they will treat Kurds?[/QUOT
Russia just got a warning shot from Turkey. One of their planes was shot down today, deep in Syrian territory. (3 miles). In order to help Assad, Russians were bombing Turkmens. They also were supporting Kurdish fighters to achieve their goal of connecting their territories in north Syria. Turkey warned Russians to stay away of their goals or Turks will fight them. Turkish fight could turn ugly blocking Dardanelles to Russian ships making Russians Latakia base worthless.
In fact the indifference of the world for what was happening to Syria was ugly. Syria is the backyard of Europe and Europeans had a moral responsibility to do something to stop the destruction of the country. Not to speak about Arab countries that stood spectators. Arab countries could have lobbied for the powers to intervene. They didn't. Europeans would not had intervened, had not the refugees knocking in Europe's doors.
Irans participation in the process is a joke.