I have spoken with some Syrians who migrated to Germany. The situation is very critical. Iran is taking parts of Syria over. They buy lots of real estate there. Specially in Damascus near the Umayyad Mosque. Also they brought Schiites from Afghanistan and other countries. Basically they replace the population partitially. I don't understand Putin. Even the Assad loyal population sees the Iranians as occupation force. They bring only trouble to him and problems. I have no idea, why he is not asking them to leave. Without Russias protection, they can not hold ground there.