Damascus must make a choice about where to advance next. The Kurds of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and their allies are backed by the Americans but appear willing to negotiate with Assad. During the past two weeks, they sent representatives to hold talks with the regime. Since the beginning of the civil war, the PYD avoided fighting the regime whenever possible and never adopted the position that Assad must be removed from power in any peace deal.

If Assad can show a little flexibility by allowing some level of decentralization for the Kurdish-led cantons, it thus seems likely that he can reassert at least nominal control of these areas.