Assad eyes return to Arab fold as Syrians vote to give him seventh term

Syria's civil war erupted when the Arab Spring protests of 2011 were met with repression, morphing into armed rebellion and chaos.

Entire cities lie in ruins, the economy is collapsing and more than half the population has been displaced, but Bashar al-Assad has emerged as the last man standing from Syria’s decade of war, having played off friend and foe to restore his grip over most of the country.

In power since 2000, Assad’s poised to win a fourth seven-year term in Wednesday’s presidential elections. Though the vote’s been roundly dismissed by the U.S. and European nations as a sham, the Syrian leader’s been bolstered by moves to woo him back into the Arab fold, part of a broader realignment that’s