In the Middle East, as presumably almost anywhere else, nothing succeeds like success. Also, values have a very limited value.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad managed to survive very difficult years of civil war, in which he practically converted a lot of his nominal sovereignty to a free hand for his sponsors from Russia, Iran and Hezbollah. Regardless of the price he has paid, Assad is still standing – and has now been grudgingly accepted back into the fold of Arab rulers, from Egypt to Saudi Arabia and Jordan to the Gulf.
How is the regional system going to be realigned, based on this new reality, and will Washington, which is trying to balance conflicting interests and policies in an around Syria, accept this new reality though it deviates from its declared wishes?
