After years of waiting out the Barack Obama administration, the fractious Syrian opposition is finding out that time has run out under Donald Trump for any meaningful US action to force Bashar al-Assad from power.
Recent victories by Assad’s armies and their Russian and Iranian allies have crushed hope for a game-changing surge in US military and financial assistance to the beleaguered rebels. Instead, the opposition groups and their US lobbyists are uniting around a dual agenda of boosting anti-Assad sanctions and restoring order in areas recaptured from the Islamic State (IS).