Syria’s new ruler is politically astute – but can he keep his promises?

During the last two weeks, I have heard many Syrians say that they want to be left alone to try to rebuild their country.

That sounds like a pipe dream.

The war destroyed much of the country, but it also drained away Syria’s sovereignty.

Bashar al-Assad became a client of Iran and Russia and fled the country when they stopped supporting him.

The US is in the north-east, to hunt remnants of Islamic State and to protect its Kurdish allies.

Turkey controls much of the north-west and has its own Arab-led militia.

There are signs that the Turks, who have a close relationship with HTS, are preparing a renewed assault on Syrian Kurds who have a close relationship with Kurdish separatists inside Turkey.

Israel, currently as aggressive as it has been for many years, has most overtly exploited the vacuum of power it saw in Syria.

It continues to bomb the remains of the state’s military infrastructure and taking more Syrian land to add to the Golan Heights which it has occupied since 1967.

The Israelis, as ever, justify their actions as self-defence.

The UN special envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen told me that Israel’s actions were “irresponsible.” Israel, he said should not act in a manner that could “destabilise this very, very fragile transitional process.”