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Welcome to the archives of Syria Deeply. While we paused regular publication of the site on May 15, 2018, and transitioned some of our coverage to Peacebuilding Deeply, we are happy to serve as an ongoing public resource on the Syrian conflict. We hope you’ll enjoy the reporting and analysis that was produced by our dedicated community of editors contributors.

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BROWSE THE SYRIA DEEPLY ARCHIVES

The Syrian Civil War: Political and Military State of Play

Written by Charles Lister and William McCants Published on Read time Approx. 1 minutes

With the armed phase of the Syrian revolution now in its 34th month, a great deal has changed since protests first erupted in March 2011. More than 130,000 people have been killed, the United Nations has now stopped counting due to the dearth of reliable information. Both the political and military aspects of the conflict have always been complex, but the nature of that complexity has changed as each of the conflict’s parties reevaluate their positions as the civil war drags on.

With the second round of peace talks now completed in the Swiss city of Geneva and dynamics on the ground shifting as Syrian rebel forces battle the extremist Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and moderate rebel forces restructure, now is an opportune time to assess the interests and capabilities of the main players.

International Players

Russia: Second only to Iran, Russia is Syria’s chief backer and a powerful one at that. Russia’s UN Security Council veto protects Assad from UN interference and Russia’s continued sale of advanced weapons and conventional small-arms and light weapons (SALWs) protects Assad from the comparatively poorly-armed opposition rebelling against him. Russia’s overlapping interests with other countries, including the United States, also forestalls large-scale external action against Assad that could damage relations with the former superpower.

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