Mick Clifford: Reeling in a brutal dictator on the verge of respectability

"It has been stated that there is more evidence than there was collected by the Allies to try the Nazis after World War Two," regarding Bashar al-Assad's war crimes, says Irish journalist Ronan Tynan.

Syria's President Bashar Assad is sworn for his third, seven-year term, in Damascus, Syria, on July 16, 2014. Picture: AP Photo/Syrian Presidency via Facebook

Ronan Tynan is watching agog at the rehabilitation of Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian dictator is tiptoeing back to international respectability.

Just last week, Assad spoke by phone to King Abdullah of Jordan, the first contact between the neighbouring rulers since Syria first fell into war in 2011. There are reports that the Biden administration is tacitly supporting Assad’s rehabilitation. In July, Arab states lobbied Biden to allow Syria to partake in a multi-state deal to export gas to Lebanon.