There was a time when Syria mattered because Assad refused to allow a nat gas pipeline from Qatar to the Med for transport to Europe. The pipeline was desired back then.
Then Ukraine put a stop to it because it would undercut their transit fee for GAZPROM gas going across to Poland and distribution to Europe. This remains a factor for the future, though Qatar’s LNG and Israel’s new Leviathan field undercuts Syria further.
Syria’s oil fields are insignificant. Output is 100K bpd, which for people who understand oil is nearly nothing (the world consumes about 103 MILLION bpd).
So there is really only one significant impact of Syria entering into a civil war -— the Syrian refugees that streamed into the EU are not going home.
Don’t you mean Russia put a stop to it because it would undercut their GAZPROM gas sales? I don’t see how Ukraine had much influence on Syria.
FR neocons: Russia Russia Russia