The Syrian uprising, now in its third year, showed us that Syria's embattled President Bashar al-Assad is both a ruthless man and a very smart dictator to survive thick and thin throughout the crisis.
Assad is good at reading and predicting behaviors of his adversaries, adjusting his moves accordingly and walking a fine line not to cross “red lines,” whaetver they are. These smart moves have allowed him to continue his military campaign to root out opposition fighters and have made possible foreign intervention to end the 26-month crisis a distant possibility.
On the military front, Assad is rushing to capture as many lands as possible to have an upper hand in next month's peace conference. In diplomacy, he is labeling the opposition "fragmented" and "radical" to reduce support it gets from the West.
It is no more secret that forces loyal to the Syrian regime are winning the war that has already left nearly 100,000 dead. When the Assad forces outflanked the opposition siege near Idlib on April 14, it marked the turning point for the Syrian army. The successful military campaign has continued throughout the rest of April and early May, ringing alarm bells in the Western capitals.