Is Syria’s drug-dealing dictator coming in from the cold?

While the eyes of the world are on Gaza, Syria’s war, in which over 400,000 have died and 14m have been displaced, grinds into its 14th year. The shattered country is looking more like Lebanon, its chaotic neighbour. It is increasingly divided along ethnic and religious lines. Warlords backed by foreign powers defend their turf, funding their militias like highwaymen and charging for passage across the lines of conflict. Outside powers have piled in, adopting local leaders and picking at ethnic and religious seams. And in a once fast-growing middle-income economy over a quarter of the population live on less than $2.15 a day. Few did before 2011, when the civil war began.