A year ago, the Trump administration said it would not seek to overthrow Assad; there was a chemical weapons incident; and America bombed a Syrian airbase.
This week, Trump said American troops would be out of Syria soon; there was another chemical weapons incident; and this time, it was Israel who bombed a Syrian base.
So, at times when the American government says it will reduce its involvement in Syria... either the Syrian army uses that moment to terrorize its remaining opponents by using chemical weapons; or the Syrian rebels try to draw America back in, by martyring a few dozen civilians in a fake chemical weapons incident.
Now that this has happened twice, I do not see any other possibilities.
Trump has tweeted that a price must be paid, but not necessarily right away. So I think that for a while we will just see verbal condemnation from him.
Meanwhile, the Syrian army is in control of the city where the attack occurred. It was the last stronghold of the Islamist opposition. So they have a territorial victory, even if they must now deal with a new storm of condemnation and more, from the West.
America and Russia are on opposite sides here. To some extent, Israel and Turkey are in the middle. Reportedly, Netanyahu criticized Trump for wanting to get out of Syria, and has also told Putin that Israel will not allow Iran to use Syria as a base against Israel. Erdogan has said that Russia is in the wrong for supporting Assad, but America is in the wrong for supporting Syrian Kurds.
The Saudi crown prince has been touring America and Europe, and has their support in his war against Iranian-backed forces in Yemen.
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