For 14 years the authoritarian regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has waged a bloody

war against the Syrian people killing and displacing millions.

As a result other Arab states and the West had shun Syria, making it a pariah.

But as Ali Rogan tells us, relations with the Syrian dictator are beginning to thaw, and we want to warn you

that some of the images of this report may be disturbing.

In 2011 protests against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met a bloody crackdown which spurred a civil

war now in its second decade.

Early on the US-led global condemnation of Assad.

In 2013, President Barack Obama and Turkish President Redchip Tuyi Beruwan urged him to step down.

We both agree that Assad needs to go. He needs to transfer power to a

transitional body. That is the only way that we're going to resolve this crisis.

But the crisis only worsened.

Assad repeatedly used chemical weapons against his own citizens.

Obama called that a red line that would prompt a military response but one

never came.

The regime has arrested, tortured, and forcibly disappeared tens of thousands of civilians,

including thousands of women and children. The Civil War has claimed several hundred thousand more lives

as rebel groups fought Assad and his Russian backers. More than 14 million Syrians have fled their homes. Roughly half remain internally

displaced. Another 5.5 million are refugees in surrounding countries, including

Turkey. Despite all of this, Assad is now being welcomed back into the global fold.

He received a warm reception at last year's meeting of the 22-member Arab League,

hosted by Saudi Arabia, his first invitation back since 2011.

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