The further the situation in Syria deteriorates and rushes headlong toward an all-out civil war, the shorter the fuse attached to the powder keg that is Syria, burns.

Over the past 10 days the 16-month revolt against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been transformed from an insurgency taking place largely in remote provinces into a battle for control of the country’s two main cities – Aleppo, the country’s commercial hub and its largest city, and the capital Damascus, where fighting exploded last week after rebel fighters entered the city in large numbers.

According to activists, more than 19,000 people have been killed since demonstrations began in March 2011.

There have been more defections of senior members of government and ambassadors, and last Wednesday an explosion killed four members of Assad’s inner circle inside a security headquarters, a blow that annihilated much of his top echelon military command structure and shattered the reputation of invulnerability that his family has held since his father seized power in a coup in 1970. Much like the reputation that was shattered in Gaddafi’s Libya when Benghazi and Tripoli fell just before the end of his brutal regime.

Indeed, the situation in Syria bears similarities to Libya but there are also divergences. The Syrian opposition forces have become increasingly better-armed and are taking ever larger patches of the country and its cities, advances which have been met with ever fiercer resistance from government fighters. Assad’s forces have in fact launched massive counter-assaults in both cities.

In the meantime, the EU is bracing itself for an exodus of refugees fleeing the violence and Cyprus, the closest EU state to the conflict, is reportedly prepared to coordinate the evacuation of foreign nationals from the country, much as Malta had done when matters in Libya reached the point of no return.

But unlike the Libyan situation, the world’s leaders are treading far more cautiously with Syria. No NATO air-raids this time, and the condemnations have been fewer and somehow softer than had been the case with the Gaddafi regime. That is because one spark could set off a regional powder keg that has been primed to ignite at any given moment.

Western powers have been calling for the removal of Assad for many months, and now say that they believe his days are numbered but they fear that he will fight to the end, raising the risk of sectarian warfare spreading across one of the world’s most volatile regions.

Until the uprising, the Assad regime had been something of a stabilising force in the region, geographically and politically. It borders five other nations and controls water supplies to three of them - Iraq, Jordan and parts of Israel. The country has close ties to Iran and the Hezbollah in Lebanon – a country it controlled for decades and where it still holds a great amount of sway. And although Syria is officially at war with Israel, which has occupied the Golan Heights since 1967, the border has remained quiet under the Assad’s rule. But this delicate balance could easily be upset should Syria, a country of 22 million people, descend further into the chaotic fog of war.

On Monday Syria threatened chemical and biological weapons should the country be invaded by foreign forces, suggesting that Assad will continue the fight to stay in power, regardless of the cost. The country is believed to have nerve agents as well as mustard gas, Scud missiles capable of delivering lethal chemicals and a variety of advanced conventional arms, including anti-tank rockets and late-model portable anti-aircraft missiles.

Israel and the US are concerned that Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons could fall into the hands of Islamist militants should the regime in Damascus collapse, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that his country would “have to act” if necessary to safeguard the arsenal from militants, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

Israel’s military chief warned Tuesday that an attack on Syrian chemical weapons depots could drag Israel into a broader war, advising restraint after top officials declared they were prepared to strike to keep those weapons out of militants’ hands.

A commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also warned this week that ‘hated Arab’ rivals could face repercussions for their efforts to topple the Tehran-backed Assad regime. He did not mention any country specifically, but Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations such as Qatar are key supporters of the Syrian rebels.

The Syrian powder keg is not only primed for ignition but the entire region, if matters are not handled very carefully indeed, stands at very serious risk of going up in flames as well.