has failedly assad to get westerners to embrace his view of the threat. i think here, we should give credit to john kerry. bad things tof say about u.s. policy, but on this specific point, i think some of this is a good centralizing of the problem. when john kerry said, assad cannot be a solution against isis because he is a magnet for terrorism. this word "magnet" accurately captures the dynamics at play. there is a lot of concern that this narrative has not taken hold in the west. there is also the strain on the militias that have to fight on several fronts today. iran has inherited two failing regimes in iraq and syria. can they do it? , they have totias decide what they want to do. the news is not necessarily good for assad. to these are medium long-term considerations. in the short term, the regime is on solid ground. longerspoken for much than i should have. sorry. but thank you for your attention. >> thank you. that was fantastic. i am sure there are a number of questions in the audience. i will do them one at a time. please welcome for the microph