Although the conflict in Syria is spiralling into a civil war, there are two potential options to solve the crisis.

The first is to offer President Bashar Al Assad immunity from criminal prosecution and provide him, his family and his criminal gang safe passage to a number of Arab countries that are willing to accept them, including Saudi Arabia.

This approach presupposes that the removal of Assad will bring about a solution to the conflict, but this claim lacks crucial merit and is ultimately a non-starter.

Indeed, Assad has not merely inherited the presidency from his father, but an entire governing apparatus that has been built around him and stands guilty of these ghastly crimes.

Any diplomatic solution that revolves around his exit will have to include the removal of thousands of individuals who lead various branches of the regime.

Their departure should be followed by the formation of a coalition government that is representative of all factions and will steer the country through a transitional period of four to five years.

The West must avoid the illusion that quick elections will provide a solution - Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Tunisia offer glaring examples of the failure of this approach.

Should the undeserved offer of clemency fail, there is no doubt that the Arab League, the US, European Union and Turkey should join together to decide on military action to bomb selective military targets in Syria.

After several sorties, the bombing should stop and a clear message be sent to Assad that it would resume unimpeded if he and his clan do not relinquish their positions.

Although I prefer a peaceful solution, in times of tragic impasse, it takes a certain level of counter-violence to prevent a much greater catastrophe.

Now that a Turkish jet fighter was shot down by Syrian air defences and if Nato stands firmly behind Turkey, Ankara will likely be more inclined to carve out a large section of Syria to provide cover and a space from which Syrian opposition forces can operate while providing aid to refugees and protecting the whole area by imposing a no-fly zone.

Russia, Iran or China will not risk challenging the US and the EU as long as Moscow is informed, through private channels, that its interests in Syria will be preserved.

It is time to stop engaging in illusions and shameful hypocrisy and adopt a realistic framework to end the Syrian killing machine.

The Alawaite-dominated regime has, for decades, subjugated its people to subhuman conditions, denying them basic human rights while letting them be consumed by poverty.

The international community must rise up to its moral obligations to halt the bloodshed.

The failure to do so will precipitate the loss of credibility of Western powers in the region, while submitting to the whims of Russia and Iran and plunge Syria into a full-fledged civil war. * Alon Ben-Meir is a professor of international relations at the Centre for Global Affairs at NYU, who teaches international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies