Though the pro-regime axis has its own reasons for wanting to avoid an Idlib offensive, there is ultimately no reason to think last week’s cessation of hostilities has any more chance of holding than its predecessors, argues James Snell.

[Editor’s note: This article was originally published in Arabic on 22 March, 2018] DOUMA, Eastern Ghouta: “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” (Matthew 7:14) The military campaign against Eastern Ghouta has imposed its terms locally on civilians, creating a compounded siege pressing them from four sides: The military pressure practiced…