NOW quotes Rafik Hariri Senior Fellow Frederic Hof on UN Security Resolution 2139 which provides humanitarian aid in Syria:
Analysts are consequently skeptical about how much the regime will be willing to comply. “Terror and starvation are the regime’s tactics of choice – it thinks it might lose if it were to act within the bounds of international law,” said Frederic Hof, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and former special advisor for transition in Syria.
“Even if Assad himself were to decide to comply, it’s hard to imagine he could control all of his assets – shabbiha, conventional military, and uniformed intelligence,” he said. It’s also unclear if the regime would be deemed in violation of the resolution if non-Syrian elements – Hezbollah, Iranian military officers, or Iraqi Shiite militias all fighting on behalf of Assad’s government – are preventing its full implementation.