Bashar al-Assad
Reports on Bashar al-Assad See all →
Syria: A state in limbo
In Syria, the center and south of the country are half-empty and loosely controlled by the government and affiliated foreign militias. The remaining regions are self-ruling principalities, each under a different force. And yet, thanks to Russian and Iranian support, President Bashar al-Assad’s regime is hanging on, blocking every opportunity for peace or democratization and allowing an incremental Iranian demographic and religious colonization.
Syria’s relentless war
Though the regime of President Bashar al-Assad now governs most of the country and ISIS has lost the territory it once held, there is still no end in sight for the Syrian Civil War. Opposition groups control several provinces, where violence simmers, and the complicated web of foreign interests has ...
Israeli view: Hezbollah puts Lebanon at risk
Since 1982, the Shia Hezbollah movement has turned the Lebanese-Israeli border into one of the most volatile in the region. With help from Iran, it has also consolidated political power in Lebanon and expanded its involvement in the Syrian civil war. After its stunning success in last year’s elections, Hezbollah ...
2019 Global Outlook: The Fertile Crescent
The single most important development in the Middle East has been the end of Syria’s civil war, which was unequivocally won by the Baath regime. Even the hammer blows of a determined religious opposition could not destroy the post-World War I system that created Syria, Iraq and Jordan as Arab ...
Withdrawal from Syria: George Washington’s warning revisited
President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from Syria was neither a bolt from the blue nor a departure from his predecessor’s strategy. Even so, the announcement allowed a new and perhaps more stable configuration to emerge in the Middle East. While the short-term winner appears to be Vladimir Putin’s ...
