U.S. intelligence chief James Clapper testified before a U.S. House of Representatives intelligence committee Tuesday that last year's agreement to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons left President Bashar al-Assad in a strengthened position.
"The prospects are right now that [Assad] is actually in a strengthened position than when we discussed this last year, by virtue of his agreement to remove the chemical weapons, as slow as that process has been," said Clapper.
Clapper also said Assad’s government is likely to stay in power with the current state of fighting between the regime and rebel forces.
"I foresee kind of more of the same, sort of a perpetual state of a stalemate where ... neither the regime nor the opposition can prevail," he told the House intelligence committee.