The Associated Press quotes Brent Scowcroft Center Resident Senior Fellow for Middle East Security Bilal Y. Saab on the one year anniversary of the chemical attack in Syria that left hundreds of civilians dead: 

“This is one anniversary that all free Syrians would love to forget. It was the beginning of the end of U.S. and international involvement in the Syrian conflict,” said Bilal Saab, a senior fellow for Middle East Security at the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security.

[…]

“The truth is that after the chemical weapons deal, Assad became a partner, and after ISIS, he became a necessity, the lesser of two evils,” Saab said, referring to the Islamic State militant group by one of its acronyms.

Read the full article here.