US official says Syrian government unlikely to collapse

9 February 2016, 9:27 pm

Edit

The director of the US Defense Intelligence Agency says he does not think the Syrian government of Bashar Assad is likely to collapse or be defeated in the near term because of increased support from Iran and Russia.

He says Assad’s forces will likely regain key territory in some key areas.

“He certainly is in a much stronger negotiating position that he was just six months ago,” Stewart says before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart predicts, however, that Iranian and Russian interests in Syria will likely diverge because they won’t share the stage there as a regional power. For now, however, Iran wants to maintain its relations with Moscow so it can purchase Russian arms without preconditions.

— AP