At the end of the day do I see Russia and China supporting the Maoist forces in Northern Syria? Yep. They can't led go of Assad but they would prefer him to step aside and in essence they don't care who controls the North so long as they can exert an ongoing influence. My wild guess is that Iran would sort of live with this albeit reluctantly because they seek an ongoing influence with the Kurds ....... through the Iraqi PUK in the first instance. Iran would also like to limit Turkey's influence and Saudi Arabia's influence and may see the Rojava Kurds (and their allies) as a means of doing this. The US supports the Kurdish Democratic Party in Iraq as does Turkey in a tacit and limited sort of way.
As for the Assad Regime ..... with or without Assad the Alawites get to keep most of the South. Without Assad they could do better than this but that's easier said than done.
ISIS in the middle?? They can't afford to give up their Tukish conduits and may shift to a consolidation phase. Only time will tell.
