In Conversation: Syria's slim chances for peace

Is peace coming for Syria anytime soon? Not via the EU's plans to arm the opposition, and probably not via the peace talks on the lips of the media, Monash University's Ben Rich says.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says his opponents are "playing a game of survival".

Ben Rich is a lecturer at the Global Terrorism Research Centre at Monash University. In conversation with SBS journalist Bill Code, Ben discusses work he's just finished off on with the UN Department of Peacekeeping, where he worked to try and count the number of opposition groups active in the Syrian conflict.

In Conversation: Syria's slim chances of peace by SBS News

In a recent piece for The Conversation, and in light of EU talk of arming the opposition, Mr Rich wrote of the slim chances this has of changing the conflict in any meaningful way.

After two years of fighting, the war is bogged down, while the major gains on the opposition side are being made by Islamist fighters, not the secular forces the West is keener on dealing with.