As he finished, the Syrian president turned to his vice-president and snapped, "Call Hamed. Tell him he can have his oil field, and we have a peace deal… on the condition that he doesn't attack our other oil fields! We will stay out of each other's hair—no schemes, no conspiracies!"

The vice-president nodded. "Alright, I'll call him right now."

Whipping out his satellite phone, he called Hamed's number.

Satellite phones were their method of communication during their rebelling days—even now t