of the most to say middle east focus think tank also in the united states in oklahoma we have joshua landis director of the center for middle east studies and sandra mckay at the university of oklahoma gentlemen welcome to you all kin and ramani coming to you 1st there in washington is any one side actually winning the war in syria as off today well as we sit here today you know almost 10 years after syrians to to streets protesting for democracy and basic human rights i think what we can all agree on is that the syrian people have lost the most 500000 people have been killed as a result of the unrestrained taliban regime and you know i don't think anyone can say that there's a winner in all of this the assad regime is still the same corrupt brutal regime there was 10 years ago it's taking control now of nearly 60 percent syrian territory but but this isn't just about the military is about the immense human suffering in loss of life there is a result of the regimes unwillingness to can see even the most basic human race its own people america in milton keynes there in the u.k. this is going

which is fine but this is happening at the expense now a lot of syrians and they are suffering joshua landis there in oklahoma bill roebuck who may not go back he's currently u.s. envoy he said in the past week or so that the humanitarian situation is and i quote under control what we're seeing of syria today doesn't look like a human it's a situation a humanitarian situation that is under control you know it's it's not under control and in fact bill roebuck in a long interview today made it very clear that there is huge amounts of damage she said in the northeast where america has a real influence. he said cutting off reconstruction and. has been terrible for that area he said many people see the united states the coalition. s. responsible for withdrawing without rebuilding and he said that agriculture is the main basis for the economy there and he said tons of irrigation and other infrastructure has been destroyed and it hasn't been rebuilt and this is a situation across syria and as your other guest said the sanctions although they're not the primary reason for the devastation clearly the