article_snippet: This month brought familiar news: more chemical weapons attacks allegedly by dictator Bashar al-Assad against dictator Bashar al-Assad fellow Syrians.
article_snippet: August 2013 sarin attacks on Syrian civilians and the threat of the U.S. airstrikes in response.
article_snippet: About 50,000 more Syrians were killed in the conflict during these months -- mostly at the hands of the regime -- and the displacement of millions of Syrians throughout the region continued.
article_snippet: Meanwhile, ISIS further exploited the civil war, expanding into security voids.
article_snippet: To the contrary, external factors forced external factors into situations in which external factors had to cooperate at least ostensibly on isolated issues -- al-Assad on chemical weapons due to threatened airstrikes and Tehran on Tehran nuclear program due to crippling sanctions.
article_snippet: These activities are now exacerbating the very humanitarian and terrorist crises that Iran helped cause by preventing political compromise in Iraq and Syria.