After more than six years, hundreds of thousands of casualties, and untold billions in economic costs, the endgame defining the future role of Hezbollah and Iran in Syria has begun. A Russian-Iranian-Turkish entente is establishing the diplomatic, territorial and operational infrastructure aimed at marginalizing and isolating irreconcilable elements militarily and expanding both the circle and effectiveness of intra-Syrian “reconciliation” efforts to enlarge and consolidate the reconstitution of state authority throughout the country.
In the last months of 2017, regime and allied forces controlled upwards of 80 per cent of Syrian territory. “Assad has emerged victorious in the battle,” affirmed Israel’s minister of security, Avigdore Lieberman, in October 2017. “Suddenly, everyone wants to get closer to Assad.”
This latest achievement has come at terrible cost to Syria and its long-suffering people.
