If the geological metaphor fashionable in Washington these days can be applied in Damascus, then Syria is moving perilously …
alawite
Syria’s Rising Death Toll: The Darkness Before the Dawn or Sign of a Grinding Stalemate?
At least 60,000 Syrians have been killed in the country’s civil war since March 2011, U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay reported Wednesday. Despite that death toll, which Pillay described as “truly shocking,” U.N. envoy …
Assad’s Roll of the Dice: Is Winter Coming for the Syrian Rebellion?
President Bashar Assad knows his regime can’t win Syria’s civil war — his foreign minister, Farouk al-Sharaa, admitted as much in an interview published last week by a sympathetic newspaper. But nor does he believe he’s about …
Is Syria’s Civil War Entering Its Final Act, or Poised for a New Phase?
The stern warnings by President Barack Obama and other U.S. officials this week that Syria‘s President Bashar Assad would face “consequences” and be “held accountable” for any use of chemical weapons against his own people, has …
Syria’s Opposition Wins Western Backing, But What About Western Weapons?
Syria‘s new opposition leadership structure announced in Qatar on Sunday could mark a turning point in the stalemated 20-month old rebellion against the Assad regime. But it could just as easily prove to be another chimerical …
Syria’s Cease-Fire: A Peace Process for Pessimists
Few expect that the four-day truce in Syria’s civil war scheduled to take effect Friday will hold, much less serve as the prelude to a more sustained peace process.
Is the Glass Half Full for Syria’s Assad?
He may no longer control huge swathes of Syrian territory, but his forces appear nowhere near collapse. Over the past 18 months, at least, the dictator has beaten the odds
The Alawite Towns That Support Syria’s Assad — in Turkey
Even as the regime’s Alawite support erodes, the President of Syria finds vocal support among his co-religionists in Turkey
Five Reasons Why the Assad Regime Survives
Syria’s conflict has morphed into a civil war whose fault lines and consequences are quite different from other Arab rebellions
Syria Opposition Sees Annan Failure as Vindication of its Armed Struggle
Absence of a political solution makes a military victory more urgent, say opposition leaders. But stability after Assad remains a daunting challenge
Syrian Paradox: The Regime Gets Stronger, Even as It Loses Its Grip
As the regime’s ability to govern Syria declines, it is being transformed into a powerful militia that has little incentive to compromise
When Syria’s Dust Settles, Will Assad Be Replaced by a ‘Junta in a Box’?
Frustrated by opposition failures and anxious over what would follow Assad, Western and Arab powers appear to be auditioning defector Manaf Tlass for a role in an interim ruling military council
Is Syria Facing a Yugoslavia-Style Breakup?
Even if the regime loses its grip on growing swaths of territory, the civil war’s sectarian dimension could see it opt to retreat into enclaves controlled by its base of Alawite, Christian and non-Sunni support