Damascus on the back foot: what next for Syria after Sharaa’s Sweida setback?

The world couldn’t believe it last December, when Syria’s Assad regime, after decades of iron-fisted rule, suddenly fell like a house of cards. The speed of that collapse exposed how the state had been hollowed out on the quiet. Eight months on, how weak does Syria remain?The government forces of Ahmed al-Sharaa pulling out from the Druze-majority city of Sweida after bombardment from neighboring Israel and pressure from a United States that’s only just recently offered Damascus a lifeline through the lifting of years-old crippling sanctions.