The fight against the Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group has prompted an “indirect war” between the US and Russia, stirring concerns of a “doomsday scenario,” says an American political analyst.

“We see an indirect war between the United States and Russia, the great potential of course being a major incident that sparks a larger conflict between nuclear armed powers,” Eric Draitser told Press TV on Sunday. “This is a doomsday scenario.”

Draitser, the founder of StopImperialism.com, raised questions about US President Barack Obama’s promise to escalate the military campaign against Daesh, following the terror group’s recent massacre in Paris that killed at least 129 people.

The analyst said Obama’s statement needs more clarification as the US and its allies have already been carrying an aerial campaign against the group and have not made any progress.

“He should be specific; does he mean cooperating with or does he mean fighting against Russia’s initiative in the region,” Draitser noted.

He said a decision by Obama to escalate the situation by putting boots on the ground in Syria would mark a dangerous development in the five-year-long conflict.

“If that is what Obama means, then we are entering a very dangerous new phase of this war wherein the US is, once again, injecting further ground forces into an already very hard war that has been going on for a few years.”

Referring to Obama’s earlier plan to send 50 Special Operation forces to the Arab country, Draitser speculated that the Paris attacks may provide the pretext necessary for “widening the ground campaign.”

The intention behind Obama’s pledge was another question posed by the analyst, saying that if the US is serious to step up the fight against Daesh, it must cooperate with Russia as well, since the Russian military is also pounding the group’s positions in Syria.

Draitser said the US, Britain and France could form a “historical” coalition with Russia to destroy Daesh, something he believed was “unlikely.”

“Rather, I see the West using the attacks in Paris as a pretext for widening their war on Syria, for continuing to pursue regime change against the Syrian government and ultimately for using their own military hardware, their own military operation to undermine Russia’s operation in the region,” he said.