Haaretz: Analysis: With His Survival Guaranteed, Assad Pushes Into Border Area With Israel, Violating Accords

Dramatic things went down in Syria this week, while the people of Israel were distracted by the storm over the prime minister and his U-turn on asylum seekers. The survival of the Assad regime, with close Russian and Iranian backing, is looking like a done deal.

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The week began with U.S. President Donald Trump uttering a remark that made his generals’ jaws drop: that he would remove all American troops from Syria.

The Pentagon is kicking and Trump has changed his mind before, but the likely upshot is that Moscow will remain the only power in Syria. Even the Saudi heir apparent Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman admitted this week for the first time, speaking with the Atlantic, that Syrian President Bashar Assad is there to stay — something the Saudis had invested billions (contributing to the bloodshed) in trying to prevent.