Iran's signing of the nuclear deal has created a bit of daylight for skeptics.
US-supported rebels are losing ground to both ultra-conservative Islamist rebels and the Assad regime.
Syria's civil war is increasingly seen as stoking a regional conflict based on religious differences. But don't forget about political motives, analysts say.
With a skyrocketing death toll and neither side willing to negotiate peace, Syria might to well to look at how its neighbor solved its own civil war.
The Accords are a legally binding agreement quite famous in Iran and virtually unknown in the US.
Since the US imposed strict sanctions 18 months ago, Iran's economy has been in free fall: Oil revenues dropped by 50 percent, the local currency has lost as much as 2/3 of its val
For both religious and geopolitical reasons, the Iranian government continues to serve as Syria's most important backer with broad domestic support.
Syria's civil war is empowering extremists and squeezing Christians.
The war in Syria is increasingly defined along the lines of a Shia regime versus a Sunni opposition.
Hezbollah claimed victory over the Free Syrian Army in Qusayr, but its entry into the war is fueling Sunni-Shia violence at home.
Syria's nonviolent uprising — which devolved into civil war — helped cause a chain reaction in Lebanon, Egypt, Yemen and Iraq, argues Lebanese scholar Chibli Mallat.