BEIRUT — The year since a chemical attack that killed hundreds near Damascus has been a strikingly good one for President Bashar Assad.
His deadly stockpile has been destroyed, but he has stayed in power, bought time and gotten world powers to engage him. Along the way, global disapproval has shifted away from Assad and toward the Islamic extremists who are fighting him.
In Syria, frustrated opposition leaders plan modest rallies Friday to commemorate an attack that they think the world has largely forgotten.
“This is one anniversary that all free Syrians would love to forget. It was the beginning of the end of U.S. and international involvement in the Syrian conflict,” said Bilal Saab, a senior fellow for Middle East Security at the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security.
Hassan Taqieddine, who was among activists who rushed to evacuate and help casualties from the attack in eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus, said he is haunted by images of the dead.
“And here we are, a year later, still getting bombed with barrel bombs, warplanes and chlorine, and no one cares,” he said, speaking via Skype from Douma.
