Assad and Putin are playing us for fools

Russia and the Assad regime are thumbing their noses at an increasingly impotent West.

Russia and Syria's Assad regime are "playing us for fools", says Roger Boyes in The Times. "Chemical disarmament, a decision foisted on Assad by a suddenly co-operative Kremlin, seemed to do everyone a favour." It saved face in Britain and America, where there was no appetite for a military strike. However, it also extended Assad's political life and increased Moscow's influence in the region.

Assad has just missed a deadline on New Year's Eve for chemical disarmament and nothing has been solved: militarily, Assad is still holding the line, and his argument that the "only alternative to him is jihadist chaos has been bought by many Western politicians". It's time to prioritise the Syrian people.

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