He seems like he follows whatever gives him the best position. Projecting moderation to the west is a no-brainer, but he also has to contend with projecting the correct stance to the groups inside Syria and that is likely going to be a much less moderate one.

There is also the outside factors of Russia, Iran, and the US. There are a lot of considerations for all of them and I won’t even pretend to predict how they will all act and react, but I do want acknowledge they can and likely will all drastically affect Syria.