Syria: Options Remain If America is Willing to Take Them

Posted: November 18th, 2016

By Tony Badran

Tony Badran is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where he focuses on Lebanon, Hezbollah, Syria, and the geopolitics of the Levant. Born and raised in Lebanon, Tony has testified to the House of Representatives on several occasions regarding U.S. policy toward Iran and Syria. His writings have appeared in publications including The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, and The Weekly Standard, and he is a regular contributor to Tablet and a columnist for NOW.

One of the biggest foreign policy challenges that President-elect Donald Trump will face is Syria. Here are how things look on the ground today and some of the scenarios the new American president may have to deal with.

Over the past few weeks, Russia has been moving significant naval assets to add fire power to its Syria-based forces currently pummeling Syrian rebel groups in and around Aleppo. Russia is expected to launch a major bombing campaign against the rebel-held part of the city in coming days, hoping to finally allow Syrian government forces to recapture it. Moscow is fully aware that, for the next few months, it all but has a carte blanche to increase its presence in the eastern Mediterranean and escalate at will in Syria without concern for any repercussion or pushback from the United States.

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