In an interview in February 2016, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad vowed that his military would retake the whole country. By the end of that year, with the support of Russian airpower, his forces had recaptured the country’s second largest city, Aleppo. And now, more than three and a half years later, as a result of the United States commander-in-chief’s unilateral decision to precipitously withdraw his forces, Assad’s military has begun to re-establish itself in the country’s north-east.

The conflict in Syria still has some way to run, but Damascus has been handed an opportunity to expand its footprint in the country at a price far less than it had expected to pay.