Author: Omair Anas

The decadelong Syrian stalemate has just turned out to be Iran’s biggest conundrum that will take years for Iran to fix. Since the fall of Aleppo in 2016, Iran had three scenarios in hand. First, they enjoyed a triumphalist policy that excluded the defeated, pressing for even greater military gain with the help of Russian military might. Iran tirelessly worked to expand its military footprints across Syria to the Lebanese border, apparently to be ready for an eventual confrontation with Israel. Iran knew that the promises of the Astana Peace Process, to proceed with constitutional reform and an internationally monitored…