Just last year, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad seemed on the brink of crowning military victories by easing his diplomatic isolation and recovering more of Syria without a bullet being fired.

Not only had the U.S.-allied Kurdish PKK invited Assad’s forces back to the northeast, but businessmen from the once hostile United Arab Emirates visited Damascus to scout out investment opportunities and regional trade had started to pick up.

By Ali Cinar, TRT World

As the world continues its fight against Covid-19, the suffering in Syria, and some of the bloodiest years in the Middle East, do not abate. We are facing the fact that half a million people have been killed by Assad, and 6.5 million Syrians have been forced into displacement by the conflict.

Neither the United Nations nor the European Union has been able to take the desired steps for the Syrian crisis. Several countries thousands of kilometers away have tried to divide Syria for their own agendas.

The former U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton has claimed that President Donald Trump was concerned about possible losses among Russian military personnel if a U.S. strike was launched against Syrian regime facilities in April of 2018.

In his memoirs about serving under Trump, Bolton described the meetings that took place in the White House after a chemical attack by the Assad regime in Syria.

Bolton said Trump was worried about accidentally hitting the Russian forces with missiles intended to target Syrian regime installations and troops.

Clashes between Syrian regime forces and Iranian militias have reportedly been raging in the Syrian city of Albukamal over the last few days, coinciding with the targeting of a bus transporting members of Assad’s forces in the south of the country.

By Raghida Dergham

All roads lead to Tehran according to the pattern of American sanctions extending from Venezuela to Syria through Lebanon - but this does not negate the importance of targeting senior figures in these nations, led by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Syrian Bashar al-Assad and Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.

By Steven Heydemann, Brookings Institution

On June 17, the most wide-ranging U.S. sanctions ever applied against Syria went into effect. The Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, passed into law as part of the most recent National Defense Authorization Act, dramatically expands the authority of the U.S. government to sanction businesses, individuals, and government institutions for economic activities that support the Assad regime’s ability to wage war.