"The Iraqis government is on good terms with Syria and tries to respect the Iranian desire to keep the Syrian Shia dictatorship in power."

 

I love Strategy Page and read it almost daily, but this is a pretty big error and degrades the credibility of Strategy Page. Just FYI.

 

Syria is NOT a Shia dictatorship. It is led by the Ba'ath Party, which was the same party Saddam Hussein was a part of, and it is Sunni, not Shia. Syria is allied with Iran because Iran gives Syria huge amounts of support so Iran can have access to Lebanon and support Hezbollah on the front line with Israel in southern Lebanon. This helps keep Lebanon in Syria's orbit.

 

Iran and Syria are still pretty different, as Syria is Sunni Arab, while Iran is Shia Caucasian. (Iran means Aryan in the Farsi language). They only have common interests against Israel and keeping Lebanon out of the Wests' orbit, among other things.

"Syria is NOT a Shia dictatorship. It is led by the Ba'ath Party, which was the same party Saddam Hussein was a part of, and it is Sunni, not Shia."

 

Actually, Syria is an Alawite Muslim dictatorship. The Alawites are a sub-sect of... and compose about 10% of the Syrian population. The Ba'ath connection between the Alawite Shia Assad Syrian dictatorship and the Saddam Sunni Iraqi dictatorship is just a reflection of the general fascist propensity of Islam in general.

Wow, thanks for the link and the info. I don't remember where I got my information, but that's quite a story in that the toppling of Assad could put Syria firmly with Arab Sunni's, which Iran definitely doesn't want, nor probably the Iraqi Shia's.

 

I did read in your link that Assad was very like the Sunni's, which, maybe, is where I got my impression.

 

This is the excerpt:

 

"Some sources have talked about "sunnification" of Alawites under Baathist... Syrian leader and Alawite Hafiz al-Asad.^[51]...Joshua Landis..., Director of the Center for Middle East Studies, writes that Hafiz al-Asad "tried to turn Alawites into `good` (read Sunnified) Muslims in exchange for preserving a modicum of secularism... and tolerance... in society." While al-Asad "declared the Alawites to be nothing but Twelver Shiites", he "set the example for his people by adhering to Sunni practice. He built mosques in Alawite towns, prayed publicly and fasted and encouraged his people to do the same."^[51]... In a paper on "Islamic Education in Syria", Landis wrote that "no mention" is made in Syrian textbooks controlled by the Al Assad regime, of Alawites, Druze..., and Ismailis... or even Shi`a Islam. "Islam is presented as a monolithic religion and Sunni Islam is it."<sup>[52]...</sup> Ali Sulayman al-Ahmad, chief judge of the Baathist Syrian state, has stated: “We are Alawi Muslims. Our book is the Quran.... Our prophet is Muhammad.... The Ka`ba... is our qibla..., and our religion is Islam.”^[53]...