Assad Has Made His Allies Think He's Indispensable

BEIRUT—On Friday, forces loyal to a triumphant Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria, raised Syrian and Palestinian flags at a roundabout in Quneitra, a destroyed town inside a demilitarized zone separating Syria and Israel. In July, Russian-backed military operations sought to drive mainstream rebels as well as fighters linked to the Islamic State out of the southern province of Daraa and neighboring Quneitra. With the Assad regime recapturing all territories in southern Syria, the two areas that remain out of its control are the northwestern province of Idlib dominated by a motley of Islamist rebel groups and policed by Turkish forces as well as oil-rich swathes of the country in the northeast and east controlled by Kurdish militias and under the protection of a contingent of US forces. that the next target is Idlib.