This week, unexpectedly, Syrian President Bashar Assad turned up in Moscow. He hasn’t been seen outside Syria since unrest broke out four years ago.
The trip makes two important statements.
The first is that, thanks to Russian air strikes, the Syrian state — the actual Syrian state recognised under international law — is breathing again. Assad holed up in Damascus looked like a Ghaddafi waiting to happen. Assad in the Kremlin looks like the head of a country with a seat at the UN.
The second is that Moscow wants a political solution to the Syrian crisis. Many rushed to interpret Assad’s Moscow …read more