Fareed Zakaria On Syria

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The United States and Russia agreed Saturday on a plan to bring Syrian chemical weapons under international control, a rare diplomatic victory in a brutal civil war.

President Obama and European leaders called Thursday for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to resign, after months of his violent crackdown on protesters. The rhetorical escalation was backed by new U.S. sanctions designed to undermine Assad’s ability to finance his military operation.

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In this 2014 Op-Ed, to the Washington Post, Fareed Zakaria addresses that from the start, President Obama’s Syria policy has foundered because of a gap between words and deeds. 

On a rare tour of prisons for Islamic State suspects from nearly 50 countries, a Times reporter watched their jailers try to secure them humanely — but for how long?

Sunnis have been pushed out by the war. The new Syria is smaller, in ruins and more sectarian.

Here is some background information about the ongoing civil war in Syria. In the first five years of the war, which began in 2011, an estimated 400,000 Syrians were killed, according to the UN Envoy for Syria.

President Trump has instructed his military commanders to quickly wrap up the American military operation in Syria so that he can bring troops home within a few months, senior administration officials said .

Vladimir Putin has been able to act forcefully in Syria not because he’s bolder or more decisive than Barack Obama but because he has a clearer strategy. Putin has an ally, the Assad government. He has enemies, the opponents of the government. He supports his ally and fights those enemies. By comparison, Washington and the West are fundamentally confused.

The United States accused the Syrian government on Friday of using banned chemical arms at least 50 times since Syria’s civil war began seven years ago — substantially higher than previous official estimates.

The US, UK and France have launched more than 100 missiles against what they say were Syrian chemical weapons facilities in response to a chemical weapons attack in a Damascus suburb a week ago.

The latest revelations about Russia and President Trump’s campaign are useful because they might help unravel the mystery that has always been at the center of this story. Why has Trump had such a rosy attitude toward Russia and President Vladimir Putin?

President Donald Trump announced that he ordered strikes on the Syrian regime in response for a chemical weapon attack last weekend.

Fareed Zakaria is host of GPS, a Washington Post columnist and author of "The Post-American World." He also regularly contributes his analysis of world events to CNN.com and other programming across CNN Worldwide.