Today's string of defeats has sent shockwaves through Damascus and Assad's Russian and Iranian allies. And this is reviving the imagination that the end of Bashar Assad's regime based on oppression in Syria is approaching.

For more than half a century, I have personally observed the situation of Arab societies and citizens and covered them as a journalist. The conclusion is that not a single Arab country has passed these four tests - stable statehood, true independence, civil rights, and sustainable and just human development - from an article by journalist and analyst Rami Khori.