Beirut: As the Arab Spring blossomed two years ago, a heady breeze brought hopes of democracy, human rights and a better life to countries across the Middle East and North Africa, including Syria.

But while dictatorships fell in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Libya, President Bashar Al Assad clung to power in Damascus, unleashing a brutal crackdown on what began as a peaceful pro-reform movement.

The response on the street was no surprise. As many Syrians clung to the belief that peaceful tactics could change things, an ever-growing number took up arms.

Two years on, Syria is mired in a devastating civil war that has killed more than 70,000 people, forced a million to flee with millions more displaced at home or missing, and an economic and humanitarian disaster.

The United Nations said bluntly last week that “Syria is spiralling towards full-scale disaster”.

Paris-Sud professor of international relations Khattar Abou Diab told AFP: “Syria is collapsing. World powers will act only when they realise that the country is becoming a new Somalia.”

In power for 40 years, the Al Assad clan believed it could quell the revolt, just as Bashar’s father and predecessor Hafez did in 1982, when he crushed a Muslim Brotherhood uprising in Hama, killing between 10,000 and 40,000 people.

In Tunisia and Egypt, the army turned its back on the top echelons of power, but Syria’s army, led by officers from Al Assad’s Alawite community, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, has remained loyal.

Defections from regime ranks have multiplied but still failed to strike the core.

And while defectors once formed the kernel of the rebel Free Syrian Army, insurgent ranks now include disparate groups including jihadist fighters from abroad.

The world is divided over Syria, where unflinching support from long-time Damascus ally Russia and China has prevented the United Nations from adopting a unified posture.

Even countries such as the United States, Britain and France that have demanded Al Assad’s departure are not providing the heavy weaponry that the rebels need to prevail.

They fear such weapons could fall into the hands of Muslim extremists, so have limited themselves to providing non-lethal support to rebels and sanctioning the inflexible regime.

Nadim Shehadeh from the Chatham House think-tank in London said that “as long as the Obama administration doesn’t want to intervene in Syria, and it doesn’t, Al Assad will feel comfortable”.

“The Americans are more worried about what will happen after Al Assad than by Al Assad himself.”

Experts and diplomats say Islamist groups are financed by Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

Mainstream insurgents say they are poorly equipped and have made repeated calls for more international arms backing, but as they run short of arms, jihadists such as the previously unknown jihadist Al Nusra Front have taken centre stage.

A security vacuum has given rise to spiralling crime and, worryingly, kidnappings and killings driven by sectarian hatred between Sunni Muslims and Alawites.

The exiled opposition, also fragmented, has frequently condemned the world’s “silence”. When its leader Ahmad Moaz Al Khatib proposed a dialogue with regime figures, this only further split the dissident ranks.

Damascus says it is ready to talk, but its rhetoric remains unchanged. Al Assad believes the war is against “terrorists” and Syria faces a “global conspiracy”.

While the regime focuses on Damascus and the route to the Alawite region on the coast, fears mount of sectarian partition.

“The worst result would be a division of power along sectarian lines, similar to Lebanon. This would lead to long-term war,” Abou Diab said.