Walking through Aleppo last month, Bashar al-Assad did not look like a man shouldering the fate of a nation. As he posed for photos with locals, who queued to meet him inspecting damage from the earthquake that had devastated parts of northern Syria, Assad appeared to show as much relief as concern for victims. The country’s grinning leader seemed to realise a moment had finally arrived.
Within days of the disaster, international aid chiefs were clamouring for an audience and asking the Syrian president for permission to reach even worse hit communities outside government control. Global bodies were once again deferring to Assad as the sovereign leader of a unified state.