BEIRUT/AMMAN (Reuters) - Just last year, President Bashar al-Assad seemed on the brink of crowning military victories by easing his diplomatic isolation and recovering more of Syria without a bullet being fired.

Not only had U.S.-allied Kurds invited government forces back to the northeast, but businessmen from the once hostile United Arab Emirates visited Damascus to scout out investment opportunities and regional trade had started to pick up.

Thanks to intervention from Russia and Iran on his behalf, nearly all of Syria's main cities and towns are under government control, with rebels who fought since 2011 to overthrow Assad now confined to a patch of territory near the Turkish frontier.

But today, the mood in Damascus is gloomy.

"The cascading effect of the sanctions could undermine Assad's ability to re-extend or maintain control over much of the country. I don't think it will overthrow him in the near-term, but it will restrict his ability to maintain control," said David Lesch, a Syria expert and Middle East History professor at Trinity University in Texas.

"Assad's strategy and the promise he has been selling to his supporters has always been that we have to win this war militarily ... and be patient and then eventually the Americans and Europeans are going to tire and sanctions would be lifted or eased," Aron Lund, a fellow at The Century Foundation, said.

"If poverty turns to extreme poverty and hunger turns to famine over time and the patronage network ... starts to weaken and wither away, we could start to see different threats rising that could be really, really severe for Assad."

https://ca.yahoo.com/news/no-sweet-victory-assad-economy-114918087.html