According to Thierry Meyssan, after Russia and China's veto of the UNSC resolution, the US dropped its support for a civil war in Syria and though it has not been announced publicly, the supplies for Syria's armed opposition are now drying up.
If this is true, then Syria is avoiding the fate of Iraq and tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands more Syrians will be alive two years from now than would be alive if the Barack Obama administration of the US had felt able to go through with its plans.
I hope it is true, but I don't see much evidence either inside or outside Meyssan's article that it is. Anyway, I'll excerpt the Meyssan's article about a possible resolution to the Syrian conflict and encourage everyone to read it in full.
On 7 February, a large Russian delegation, including the highest ranking foreign intelligence officials, arrived in Damascus where it was greeted by cheering crowds, aware that Russia’s return to the international scene marked the end of their nightmare. The capital, but also Aleppo, the second largest city, were decked out in white, blue, red, and people marched behind banners written in Cyrillic. At the presidential palace, the Russian delegation joined those of other states, including Turkey, Iran and Lebanon. A series of agreements were reached to re-establish peace. Syria has returned 49 military instructors captured by the Syrian army. Turkey intervened to obtain the release of the abducted Iranian engineers and pilgrims, including those held by the French (incidentally, Lieutenant Tlass who sequestered them on behalf of the DGSE was liquidated). Turkey has ceased all support for the "Free Syrian Army", closed down its facilities (except the one on the NATO base at Incirlik), and turned over its commander, Colonel Riad el-Assad. Russia, which is the guarantor of the agreements, has been allowed to reactivate the former Soviet listening base on Mount Qassioum.Armed foreign-supported opposition forces establishing "liberated territory" by which I mean territory outside of the control of the formal central government is a recipe for one thing: civil war that leads to at least an order of magnitude more death than would have happened otherwise. If Russia does enable Syria to avoid that fate, then Russia and China by their UNSC vetoes, are the heroes of 2012.
The next day, the US State Department informed the Syrian opposition in exile that it could no longer count on its military aid. Realizing that they have betrayed their country to no avail, the Syrian National Council members went in search of new sponsors. One of them even went so far as to write to Benjamin Netanyahu asking him to invade Syria.
