Results for “Assads”

22 be, it is unclear that the newcomers would follow the Assads' cautious-use doctrine and refusal to share chemical weapons with non- state groups, or that the new leaders would be able to maintain strict security measures at the chemical sites. Meanwhile, it's possible that a...

12 ordinary Syrians. A dialogue of the deaf ensued. The Assads’ intense preoccupation with external crises led them to neglect the internal scene. Who would need political freedoms, they no doubt thought, if given the benefits of security and stability? As the regime’s official...

but the Assads were never one of them. I could never quite understand my colleagues' fascination with the brutal Syrian regime. To me

the Assads have treated their chemical arsenal with considerable care. But as the country potentially descends into chaos

it is unclear that the newcomers would follow the Assads' cautious-use doctrine and refusal to share chemical weapons with non-state groups

… outweigh the potential benefits. Bad options, bad outcomes. So, for now, we watch and wait to see where the arc on the Assads is headed -- north or south. But if the Assads do survive, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if Washington at some point resumes a business-as-usual p...

… much better. Syria presents a profoundly different situation. U.S. policy has always been driven by the hope that the Assads would change and the fear of what might replace them if they fell. Three additional realities ensured a U.S. response quite different from the one for Li...

…ia was then, as it is now, judged as simply too big to fail. There was something perversely comforting about having the Assads around. I had my own fair share of illusions during my government career, but the Assads were never one of them. I could never quite understand my colle...

…ng a fundamental rift in Syria’s ruling family. The reason for this is that there is no serious alternative to what the Assads and the Makhloufs are doing today. They can either stand together behind repression, or fall apart. That’s hardly to justify the regime’s butchery of hun...

…yrians are good judges of their adversaries’ weaknesses, and what they see in Washington is a president who prefers the Assads to the possibility of chaos. They realize that the measures taken until now by the United States and Europe have been relatively gentle, therefore wholly...

and what they see in Washington is a president who prefers the Assads to the possibility of chaos. They realize that the measures taken until now by the United States and Europe have been relatively gentle

…egime put in place in 1970 by his father, the late President Hafez al-Assad. Forty-one years in power The rule of the Assads, father and son, has now lasted 41 years, a score comparable to that of other long-lasting Arab autocrats, each apparently determined to be a président-a...