The New Yorker:

A historian explains why U.S. sanctions and Iran and Russia’s entanglements in other wars helped create an opening for rebel groups to overrun the Syrian Army.

By Isaac Chotiner

In a stunning offensive that appeared to catch the regime of Bashar al-Assad off guard, opposition forces took over much of the Syrian city of Aleppo last week, and began moving on the city of Hama, another major urban center. Despite pledges on Monday from the governments of Russia and Iran that they would increase their support for the Syrian regime, rebel advances continued throughout the day. What was recently a largely dormant uprising may have entered an entirely new phase.

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