Assad was on good terms with practically everyone. His tyranny, as I understand, was primarily focused on not allowing Muslim fundamentalists to come to power and kill everyone else (as that's what they are doing currently.) I read that Saddam of Iraq had bad children, and Saddam himself was not very kind to his enemies. But Assad was willing to work with Israel, and the USA, and Russia. CIA had their secret interrogations done there. Assad was not a threat. He haven't even said a word when Israel bombed *something* in Syria. Was he a dictator? Yes. But he was a sane dictator.
>>>His tyranny, as I understand, was primarily focused on not allowing Muslim fundamentalists to come to power and kill everyone else (as that’s what they are doing currently.)<<<
In fact Saddam was that kind of dictator too. Even his infamous attack on Kuwait was a way to prevent manipulating the oil market by islamist states. Saudis were quick to pull their strings at Washington because it was clear that Saddam could have been kicked their jihadi butts next if he was to get away with both Iran and Kuwait.