Comment of the Year: The Middle East – Syria

... explosive. Perhaps one of the few really felt positive results of 2017 is the rout of ISIS as a quasi-public terrorist entity, which in its heyday controlled an area in Syria and Iraq equal in size to that of Britain with a population of 9 million. Russia played a decisive role in the counterterrorist campaign. The timely and rapid entry into the Syrian conflict, at the request of the Syrian government, of the Russian Aerospace Forces and a limited ground support contingent has produced a breakthrough,...