Speaking on condition of anonymity, three US senior intelligence officials have said Assad holds a strong position in Syria and his inner circle is also very determined to back the cause and remain "steadfast," AP reports.
Intelligence officers noted that the disorganized Syrian opposition is providing little challenge to the regime and that the political leaders of the Syrian National Council do not work as a team and often fight among themselves.
Meanwhile, government forces are very well equipped, US intelligence experts assert. They describe Syria as a formidable military power, with some 330,000 soldiers on active duty, surveillance drones and a dense network of air-defense installations that would make it difficult to establish a no-fly zone.
"That leadership is going to fight very hard," said one of them.
According to the experts, Assad and his inner circle believe that the unrest is being driven by external forces and their army is sufficiently well equipped to withstand anything but a large-scale military intervention.
While the statement did not speak directly about the timeline of the conflict, it made an impression that the conflict may last several more months if not longer.
The assessment comes with many senior US officials predicting the end of the Assad regime in the very near future. US President Barack Obama recently said that Assad's fall is a matter of time.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has also repeatedly stated that the regime's days are numbered and Assad cannot hold on to power in the long term.
The US defense secretary, Leon Panetta, has claimed that sanctions and diplomatic pressure are already "having a significant impact on Assad" and are weakening his regime. Israel has also predicted that the end is near for Assad.
What does this add to the discussion?
If this data is so "true" why couldn't they leak something important that would help resolve the situation?
This gives us the impression that the US government is divided on what to do with Syria, which is pretty obvious anyway. Criminals, to consolidate control, somehow have to get non-criminals to cooperate with them. And that takes time. There will always be some internal resistance to doing stupid things.
The whole globalist agenda would be all wrapped up by now if it were easy to get relatively honest and sane people to act against their own best interests.