The political crisis that followed the assassination in February of Lebanon’s former prime minister Rafik Hariri has thrown all the weaknesses and contradictions that make up Syrian political life into stark relief. With the next phase of the UN investigation into the Hariri killing set to question the most senior members of the Syrian security elite, the country’s political future – and that of its 40-year-old president Bashar al-Assad – is in question.
Hopes were high