by Michael Young, The Daily Star, Lebanon

Summary

Today, even Arab countries opposed to Assad have made the campaign against ISIS a priority, undermining the primacy of the struggle against a brutal Syrian regime.

Terrorism is the new catchword and has fragmented those opposed to Assad.

President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi has his own terrorism problem in Sinai, and this week he hosted one of Assad’s main backers, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who seeks to benefit from tensions between Cairo and Washington and is pushing his own peace plan for Syria.

Assad must also be delighted with the very visible shift in American attitudes.

Perhaps the greatest loser has been Turkey, accused today of collaborating with ISIS. In his zeal to oust Assad, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan turned his country into a passage for jihadis entering Syria.

Assad has gotten away with all this, even as Obama has reassured Iran that the Syrian leader is safe.

This means that even if Assad remains in office, the jihadis will retain significant mobilizing power. But the United States seems oblivious to this, so determined is Obama to avoid taking any position on Assad’s future.

– See more at: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Columnist/2015/Feb-12/287120-why-bashar-assad-appears-so-smug.ashx#sthash.uMonFfcE.dpuf