In an interview with al Arabiya TV, al Hadath stream, Dr Walid Phares said "the regime of Bashar Assad is now under the military protection of the Russian military, imposing a new political reality on the US

In an interview with al Arabiya TV, al Hadath stream, Dr Walid Phares said "the regime of Bashar Assad is now under the military protection of the Russian military, imposing a new political reality on the US. Any negotiated political settlement for the Syrian conflict will have to grant Assad and his elite a part of the political, financial and military institutions, even if the Obama Administration had in the past asked Assad to step down. The opportunity has passed as the Russians and the Iranians are now seizing ground inside Syria."


Phares said "Assad is now under a Russian umbrella that protects him from the Jihadists, the Arab countries and Washington. However that umbrella is small in size. Even the Russians won't be able to bring back Assad militarily to all the areas his regime has already lost. Also no political settlement -even with the support of both super powers- can bring Syria to its pre-2011 stage. The geopolitical, demographic, security and urban realities of the country have changed irreversibly."

Russian forces in Syria

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