Why assad will win

Why has the Syrian war lasted 10 years? Bashar al-Assad: Facing down rebellion. Image source, EPA. While casting his vote, Mr Assad said the West's opinion counted for "zero".

Image source, Reuters. Parliamentary speaker Hammouda Sabbagh announced that Mr Assad had won Protesters demonstrated against the election in rebel-held Idlib, where the vote was not held. Related Topics. Syrian refugees Syrian civil war Bashar al-Assad Syria. Fighting has subsided but the war is not over. Assad, close associates and government officials are facing widening Western sanctions, added to already existing ones that have escalated as the war unfolded.

Damascus erupted in celebrations, with gunfire and fireworks lighting the night sky. Thousands gathered in major squares in Damascus, and the coastal city of Tartus, dancing while waving flags and pictures of Assad. One singer appeared on a stage set up in a Tartus square, dressed in the flag of Syria. Almost no one was wearing a face mask, though Syria is facing a surge of coronavirus cases.

The election is likely to offer little change to conditions in Syria. While Assad and his allies, Russia and Iran, may be seeking a new seal of legitimacy for the president in office since , his re-election is likely to deepen the rift with the West, driving him closer to Russian and Iranian backers as well as China. A US-led coalition did launch strikes in Syria the following year, but that was to back Kurdish-led fighters battling the Islamic State group whose newly-proclaimed "caliphate" had become the focus of global attention.

Russia stepped in the year after in support of Assad and launched its first air raids in , turning the tide of the conflict. It "seized a historical opportunity to retrieve its lost superpower status by filling a strategic void left by Obama's partial disengagement from the region," Pierret said.

At 55, Assad is already in his third decade in power, and a fourth mandate looks guaranteed after presidential elections this summer. Once clamouring for Assad to leave, Western powers are now eager for a political solution to stem the conflict before the polls.

UN-led efforts in recent years have focused on a committee -- equally representing the regime, the opposition and civil society -- to re-write the country's constitution.

But they have made next to no progress. A Western diplomatic source said Assad would likely delay any progress until after presidential elections are held under the current constitution, then present the international community with a fait accompli. The content you requested does not exist or is not available anymore.

ON TV. On social media. Who are we? Fight the Fake.