Blood stains the ground near a police line after a suicide bomber detonated his bomb vest inside the Justice Palace, in central Damascus on March 15, 2017, leaving 43 people killed and 105 others wounded. Picture by Xinhua/SIPA USA/PA Images. All rights reserved As the conflict in Syria enters its seventh year, there are two widespread assumptions about the future of the country. The first is that a peace deal will involve a transition of power from the government of President Bashar al-Assad to someone else. The second is that such a transition will lead to peace.
Indeed, the focus of the latest round of peace talks in Geneva has been on preparing the ground for an eventual transition of power from Assad’s government. This outcome may be desired by many parties, including the UK government, but it is not guaranteed. There is a chance the current regime will remain in power, if not indefinitely, then for some time to come.
Whilst many people will find this abhorrent, others will see it as the best option, or at least the ‘least bad’ one. Let’s remember that the Assad regime does have support, and not only from outsiders such as the governments of Russia and Iran, but from many Syrians, too - including the army. There are others who do not necessarily support the Assad regime, but are not actively opposed to it either. For them, it is a case of better the devil you know. They are fearful of the alternatives, fearful of other groups who may be just as violent or repressive coming into power.
