Help Assad or Leave Cities in Ruins? The Politics of Rebuilding Syria
Or, having failed to topple Mr. Assad, who — with help from Russia
and Iran — has reclaimed much of the territory he lost over nearly seven years of war, can the West abandon the people of Syria to live in the ruins?
The European Union’s top diplomat, Federica Mogherini, has called reconstruction aid the last bit of leverage the West has
over the political future of Syria, though what influence the West now has over Mr. Assad’s fate is uncertain at best.
In Al Waer, one of the latest places to be reclaimed by Mr. Assad’s forces, insurgent fighters were offered
a deal to either surrender or leave, with their families, to rebel-held enclaves much farther north.
But she also said Western nations must make clear that their participation "will start only when the political transition will be agreed on in Geneva." Mr. Assad’s government, for its part, is eager to note
that the goal posts of those political talks have moved away from what had been a central objective of the opposition: his exit from power.
In Homs, Syria’s third-largest city, reminders of Mr. Assad’s military triumph are everywhere,
including at the entrance of a hotel that serves as the United Nations base.
3, 2017
HOMS, Syria — This city’s last rebel stronghold, once a well-to-do neighborhood in Homs of wide streets
and high-rise apartments, is today a ghost of its former self.
