In 2011, when the Arab Spring shook the Middle East, leading to the fall of autocrats in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya and mass protests in Yemen, Bahrain and Syria, epitaphs began to be written for the Assad dynasty. However, Iran, Lebanese Hezbollah and Russia came to the rescue of the family that took over Syria for decades. Now that the allies have “let their guard down”, the illusion of the Syrian regime's triumph in the bloody civil war has disappeared. “Nothing – neither regimes nor leaders – lasts forever,” writes CNN.