Government forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, backed by strong Russian air support, appear to be making a strong push in the country’s south—long a stronghold of more moderate rebel forces fighting against Damascus in the grinding Syrian Civil War.Though rebels are currently holding their own in defending the strategically significant town of al-Shaikh Maskin, observers are nervous. With peace talks in Vienna set to take place in the coming weeks, analysts see the push as a gambit by Assad to gain maximum leverage at the negotiations. Syrian authority Joshua Landis went further in talking to the Financial Times: …read more
Source: The American Interest
