Members of rebel group Khaled ibin al Walid Fighters take position at the frontline as they fight against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces at Hamidiyeh district in the central city of Homs July 1, 2012. Picture taken July 1, 2012. REUTERS/Yazen Homsy
Syria And The Power Of Sectarian Strife -- Robert G. Rabil, The National Interest
Major world powers, meeting in Geneva over the weekend in an effort to strike a meaningful pose on the ongoing crisis in Syria, failed to do so. There was no consensus on calling for the removal of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad from power, and the ultimate agreement favoring a political transition lacked any real meaning. Russia and China, as expected, blocked the other seven nations from issuing a statement calling for Assad’s removal. Meanwhile, Syria experienced a particularly bloody spurt of violence, with more than 100 people killed.
Thus will the Syrian crisis continue along the lines of what the UN undersecretary general for peacekeeping operations, Herve Ladsou, has tacitly called a civil war. Both the Syrian government and the opposition forces resist acknowledging this reality, but it is reality nonetheless. The nation faces the danger of being overtaken by sectarian cleansing.
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My Comment: The comparison to Lebanon's civil war is valid but only to a certain degree. Unlike Lebanon, Syria's Alawite community is small and isolated while the Sunni population is approximately 70% (if not more). For the Syrian regime to survive it will have to fall back to these mixed (non-Sunni) regions .... but even in these 'mixed' regions the Syrian regime does not have many allies in the Christian/Kurd/etc. communities.
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