Mehul Srivastava, Max Seddon, Andrew England and Najmeh Bozorgmehr
Three weeks ago Bashar al-Assad was at an Arab summit in Riyadh enjoying the diplomatic attention.
He stood at a podium to lecture about political solidarity, met with powerful Arab leaders, including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and waved from a red carpet as he departed on his presidential plane.
He was the reviled leader of a fractured state, but so rooted in place that even Europeans had been making overtures — via Jordan — in search of a solution to the Syrian refugee crisis.
If not rehabilitation, it was at least resigned acceptance. More than a decade of civil war had failed to topple Assad, allowing him to inch back from pariah status.
Now 59-year-old Assad is an asylum seeker in Moscow, his father’s statue in Tartus has been toppled, and rebels are scouring embassies in Damascus for any sign of the cronies who ran his regime.
No comments:
Post a Comment