Syria's new rulers held a long-awaited national dialoguSountry after the fall of former President Bashar Assad and nearly 14 years of civil war. About 600 people from across Syria were invited to the gathering in the presidential palace in Damascus,

Although the conference was called to chart the country’s future, the Kurdish-led militia that controls much of Syria’s northeast was not invited.

Nearly three months after Bashar al-Assad fled, much of Syria is suspended between relief at the dictatorship’s demise and anxiety over what comes next.