Syria is by no means vitally important to either Russia or China. Syria maintains a relatively small naval base officially owned by Russia, which it can sail its unfortunately small Mediterranean-bound fleets to. Syria is also a major importer of Russian armaments. So is half the world. [i]Civilian sales of AK-type weapons in the US[/i] make up nearly [i]a third[/i] of sales from the Izhmash factory where they're made. Russia can very much do without Syria, and I am wholly confident they will not bother intervening in any form of Israeli-Syrian conflict. Except maybe funds and munitions, exactly what China would do for Iran if Iran decided to attack Israel as well. And get stomped of course. This is the country that couldn't defeat a weakened, gassed-to-buggery Iraqi Army, despite owning a country oodles of times larger than Iraq and by sending vast numbers of their soldiers (mostly boys, apparently) to wander across the battlefield to demoralise the Iraqi machine gunners. It worked (if not strategically or even operationally), but it's demonstrably pathetic tactics.