The situation continues to be volatile, leaving the world and especially Syria and its neighbours on edge, fearing for the last scraps of stability they have. Once again, the recent air strike by the US, UK and France has had few tangible results, and many suggest they should have focused their efforts on trying to overthrow the regime instead.

Yet despite noticeably closer ties, Turkey and Iran are far from being friends. Given their opposing stances on the future of Syria and both countries’ wider ambitions for regional influence, they are likely to lock horns in the future. But as partners of the moment, they are ideally suited.

With HTS on one side and the regime on the other, the FSA seems to be facing an untenable situation in Idlib, unless Turkey stages a full-scale intervention there as well. The endgame is still not clear. What is clear is that the FSA’s original hopes of deposing al-Assad are all but dead.

israel and Hezbollah understood that a next round would be devastating and that each could not entirely eliminate the threat of retaliation in a first wave, the solution has been to bargain deterrence. However, the deterrence policy has preserved stability between both sides.

Will the elections diminish or strengthen the power of Hezbollah in Lebanon’s government? However, the impact of May’s elections will be felt well outside the borders of the small country and by many more people than the approximately 6 million living inside it.

The new emir was tested by the Saudis and Emiratis with the aim of changing Qatar’s regional policies, and after the crisis was resolved there was an improvement in relations, notably with respect to the Iran nuclear deal and Syria. But this proved to be temporary and was followed by the much larger crisis that persists until today.

If The Arab League is to undergo a transformation for the better, it can only happen under two conditions. The Arab League must act collectively to override the influence of its most dominant members while resisting foreign pressure.

It looks increasingly likely that Eastern Ghouta will eventually fall, as Aleppo did. However, the rebel groups may have an interest in delaying the inevitable in hopes of gaining a more favourable exit deal. In the meantime, the displacement and death of civilians continues unabated.

As the number of out-of-school children looms both inside Syria and in host countries, these invisible wounds won’t be healed unless large humanitarian groups and U.N. agencies team up with local and grassroots organizations inside Syria and out. They need to address the mental health and public health challenges in parallel with educational programming.

Assad will happily take more freebies from the EU. For the regime, reconstruction is to serve, first and foremost, its own consolidation as well as ensure the permanenceof social and demographic shifts and strengthen the loyalty of its citizens. A view espoused by the Assad regime and echoed in international aid meetings warns that Europe will lose out to Moscow and Tehran unless European nations help in the reconstruction of Syria.