Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East Senior Fellow Frederic C. Hof is quoted in the Christian Science Monitor on how the Assad regime has positioned itself to outlast rebel factions as peace talks in Geneva near:

“It is the very presence of the Assad regime and the very tactics it has employed that account for the presence of Islamist extremists in Syria. The regime has set the country alight and now presents itself as the fire brigade,” says Frederic Hof, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East.

Mr. Hof, who previously served as the Obama administration’s liaison with the Syrian opposition, added that the Assad regime’s efforts to radicalize the opposition were inadvertently aided by the West, “which failed miserably to support the regime’s real opponents.”

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