"So Assad still has access to Syria’s oil, and can sit and watch as his enemies slaughter each other"

"... Western consultants are unlikely to have any involvement in Syria’s oil industry today, because all the oilfields in the north-east have been seized by hardline Islamist factions. In Deir Ezzor, two al-Qaida inspired groups – Jabhat al Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) – are fighting over the territory. In the oil-rich areas, in other words, rebels are fighting other rebels and opportunistic Islamists rather than directing their energies against Assad’s regime. Meanwhile, whoever controls the oil sells the bulk of it off to the highest bidder – and often, according to some rebel commanders and opposition activists, to the regime they are purportedly fighting against. So Assad still has access to Syria’s oil, and can sit and watch as his enemies slaughter each other."