The Syrian rebels fighting the regime of President Bashar Al Assad are now reported to be armed with Russian-made T-62 tanks supplied by Libya. Twenty of the tanks are said to be already in the rebels’ hands.

Having failed to secure a UN mandate to end the crisis in Syria, the US and its allies have resorted to act outside the UN context. Indeed, that is the only option available to anyone interested in seeing an end to the violent crackdown waged by the Syrian regime against dissent.

Turkey is the main conduit for weapons to reach the Syrian rebels. Washington has already given the nod to Turkey to supply anti-aircraft FIM-92 Stinger missiles and the rebels have claimed to have shot down a Syrian Air Force fighter jet, a Mig-21, over the northeastern town of Deir Al Zour using the shoulder-fired missiles. The Syrian regime says the aircraft crashed because of technical problems. The rebels have released photographs of the captured pilot of the aircraft. Television footage showed the plane blowing up in mid-air and their burning debris falling to the ground amid clouds of heavy smoke, indicating that it was downed by a missile.

Clearly, the Syrian conflict has entered a new phase. The supply of tanks and Stinger missiles to the Free Syrian Army (FSA) has turned around the course of the conflict.

The next step is the setting up of the first safe havens inside Syria which the FSA and other rebel groups will now be armed to defend.

Reports say that Turkey has drawn up plans for setting up those safe havens between five and 25 kilometres deep inside Syrian territory and on its borders with Turkey and Iraq. Turkey seems to be concerned less with the military aspects of those safe zones than with using them to relieve itself of the burden of hundreds of thousands of displaced Syrians who have fled and continue to flee across the border into Turkey as destitute refugees.

The Syrian regime now faces fateful decisions: the supply of heavy weapons to the Syrian rebels, the downing of a fighter jet by a Stinger missile and the prospect of protected enclaves cutting through the country, threaten to turn the tide of war against the rulers of Damascus.

The Syrian regime cannot afford to continue to have its military demoralised by the increasing strength of the rebels. And that raises the prospect of the regime resorting to the use of chemical and biological weapons against the forces challenging it. It is a deadly possibility.