recover lost temperate sri with the age of russian air strikes putin wants to strengthen russia's military presence in the region reduce american influence and keep radical islamists out of power the russian air station near latakia is now a permanent fixture on the ta to smithereens base russia's only such base in the mediterranean is being enlarged. president hassan rouhani of iran is another assad supporter afterall iran has no intention of losing its one ally in the arab world from day one terran has supported damascus with advisors weapons and troops syria in return grants iran a much needed route to the hezbollah militia in lebanon. this man on the other hand would like to see assad out of power turkey has supported various radical rebel groups from the start and since january has had its own troops in syria one of