BEIRUT: President Bashar al-Assad always saw time as an ally in Syria’s civil war, along-side the Russian and Iranian firepower he turned on his foes, sources familiar with his thinking say.
Now, as Arab states bring him back into the fold, the logic appears to have worked for him once again.
Assad could well be rubbing shoulders with Arab kings and presidents at a May 19 summit in Ri-yadh thanks to Syria’s readmission to the Arab League, a big moment in his regional rehabilitation even as he continues to be shunned by the West.
It would have been unthinkable earlier in the conflict when Gulf Arab states swung behind rebels battling to oust Assad, and then U.S. President Donald Trump branded him an “animal” for using chemical weapons – an accusation he routinely denied. He owes his survival in large part to Iran and Russia, which were always more committed to his sur-vival than his adversaries in the West and Middle East were to seeing him toppled by rebels.
Assad, 57, has outlasted many of the foreign officials who believed his demise was once imminent.
Now, geopolitical shifts in the Middle East have only strengthened Assad’s hand as the region’s most powerful states pursue entente over conflict, among them Assad’s Shi’ite Islamist backers in Tehran and their Sunni rival Saudi Arabia.
“Syrian foreign policy is all about waiting for everyone else to come around to their position – just waiting and taking the punishment on the assumption their enemies will tire before they do. That has worked out for Bashar al-Assad – to an extent,” said Aron Lund of Century International. –Agencies
