Damascus has fallen. What now?

Crucially, what will Putin do about the dramatic developments in Syria? He has lost his stooge in Bashar al-Assad and will probably also lose the two most important parts of Syria which he needs for maintaining influence in the region, the naval base at Tartus and the airbase at Khmeimim, south east of the southern city of Latakia. Putin will want to hang on to these bases which are vital for his meddling in the region. The anti-Assad rebels who have ousted Assad and taken control of Damascus are no friends of the Russians. But they aren't friends of the US and the West either. So Putin will no doubt be pulling out all the stops to get friendly with the new lot, especially as President-elect Donald Trump has announced that the US should not get involved but to leave Syria to whomever. This is a slightly carefree and careless approach to take. For a start, there are still 900 US troops in northern and eastern Syria and if he wants them to continue to play a role in fighting Isis in the area, he will need to keep them there. But I suspect Trump will tell them to leave, just like he tried to do when he was in power before and met strong disapproval from his then defence secretary, General Jim Mattis. This time round he will have a more compliant defence secretary who will do what he is told. Putin might take advantage of this by cementing a new deal with the Islamic militant rebels who are now taking over in Syria. Putin will do a deal with whomever it takes to do a deal with. Trump, by the looks of it, is washing his hands of Syria. This could be a bad move.