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This week, a special programme recorded in Damascus and Beirut looking at the Syrian conflict and its possible solutions. It\\u2019s a highly complex struggle. But is it right to characterise it as a civil war, a home-grown uprising to Bashar al-Assad\\u2019s brutal regime \\u2013 as many in the Syrian opposition view it? Or is the conflict a war against Syria, conducted by militant jihadi groups supported by Syria\\u2019s enemies \\u2013 as the Assad government would like it to be seen? In Damascus, Owen Bennett Jones talks to supporters of President Assad, and in Beirut he considers the same issues with a panel of Syrian government critics.

(Photo: bereaved woman crying outside Aleppo hospital. Credit: Dan Isaacs, BBC)