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The World This Week: Should the West have intervened?

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Should the West have intervened?

17/12/2016 GMT

BBC World Service - The World This Week, Should the West have intervened?

Pro-Assad forces took Aleppo, after a bitter siege. Should the West have got involved?

After years of war and the bitterest of sieges, pro-Assad forces re-took the last bits of Aleppo this week. Some civilians were bussed out. Iran has been backing Mr Assad, so this victory burnishes Iran's reputation too.  And at a time when its rival Saudi Arabia was given a humiliating rebuff by Washington. But - perhaps - if Western countries had intervened in Syria in 2013 -- when they had the chance to, and before Russia became involved -- it might have turned out rather differently.  James Landale covered the debate in the British parliament which rejected intervention at the time.  He asks if the West will ever intervene again...
Photo: Syrian government buses evacuate rebel fighters and their families from eastern Aleppo.
Credit: EPA

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