• Iranian-backed Hezbollah and its allies in his cabinet are strong supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while most Sunni Muslims support rebels battling to topple Assad. (voanews.com)
  • We can have ideological and political differences with certain parties, but the revolutionaries all share the same goal: to overthrow the criminal regime" of President Bashar al-Assad, al Khatib continued. (longwarjournal.org)
  • In the conundrum, looking for clarity is as difficult a task as ousting President Bashar al-Assad. (dailymirror.lk)
  • Ersal largely sympathises with the Sunni-led uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad, while Bekaa Shiites support the Lebanese Hezbollah, which is currently fighting alongside Syrian regime forces. (ipsnews.net)
  • Further complicating the predicament for Saudi Arabia is that, more recently, Saudi and other Persian Gulf oil sheikdoms have been identified as backers of Sunni militants fighting in Syria to overthrow the largely secular regime of President Bashar al-Assad. (informationclearinghouse.info)
  • According to a report by AFP , the man was killed in Bab al-Tebbaneh, as residents of the mainly Sunni Muslim district traded gunfire with locals in the Jabal Mohsen area inhabited by Alawites, a Shiite sect of which Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is a member. (israelnationalnews.com)
  • The area is one of Lebanon's most volatile sectarian fault lines and chronic Sunni-Alawite tensions in Tripoli have been heightened by the 17-month-old, mainly Sunni, uprising in Syria against President Bashar al-Assad, an Alawite. (undispatch.com)
  • Beirut - Lebanon's militant Shi'ite movement Hezbollah has always been opaque but since intervening in the Syrian civil war it is even more secretive - to the frustration of Lebanese political opponents trying to discuss with Hezbollah leaders what happens if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad falls. (yalibnan.com)
  • External pressure is building on President Bashar al-Assad. (yalibnan.com)
  • Among pro-Iranian elements, such as President Bashar al-Assad of Syria and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, the news of the deal has, predictably, been met with jubilation. (aijac.org.au)
  • Speaking in Damascus, Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Miqdad accused Turkey of providing arms to Syrian rebels opposed to the rule of President Bashar al-Assad . (typepad.com)
  • In the rest of the country, the Alawite regime of President Bashar Assad has lost control to the extent that its military chiefs are scared to wear uniform when travelling alone, while officials and businessmen fly between the regime strongholds of Aleppo and Damascus because roads are unsafe. (euobserver.com)
  • In order to survive, Assad and his Alawite generals will struggle to turn Syria into Lebanon - a fractured nation, where no one community can rule. (joshualandis.com)
  • I have argued that the Alawite region cannot be turned into an independent state, but it does provide Assad and the remnants of the Syrian Army a social base. (joshualandis.com)
  • In Syria, for instance, senior Israelis have made clear they would prefer Sunni extremists to prevail in the civil war rather than Assad, who is an Alawite, a branch of Shiite Islam. (informationclearinghouse.info)
  • Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, its "caliph", has ignored pleas by Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's successor, to refrain from the indiscriminate killing of Shia and, instead, to attack the Shia-dominated and Alawite regimes in Iraq and Syria. (theguardian.com)
  • Gunmen in the Sunni district of Bab al-Tabbaneh and their Alawite rivals in Jebel Mohsen exchanged gun and grenade fire in sporadic fighting overnight and into the day, despite action by Lebanese troops deployed in the port city, residents said. (undispatch.com)
  • June 3, 2014 -- Syrian Revolution Commentary and Analysis , posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with permission -- Over the last year, the sectarian (mainly Sunni versus Alawite) element of the Syrian conflict has markedly grown, within an uprising that began as a multi-sectarian popular democratic uprising against Syria's tyrannical regime of Bashar al-Assad. (links.org.au)
  • Though the regime is purportedly "secular," it is heavily dominated by members of the Alawite religious minority to which Assad and his ruling family belong, especially the military-security apparatus, and this fact combined with the level of slaughter conducted against the mostly Sunni insurgent peasantry and urban poor has facilitated a sectarian mirror among parts of the opposition seeking the overthrow of Assad's rule. (links.org.au)
  • Sunni fighters in Lebanon's Tripoli are becoming increasingly inspired by the organization of Syrian armed groups, and are seeking to build their own incipient combative organizations to defeat their Alawite "near enemies" in the city. (fairobserver.com)
  • In the last two weeks, sectarian-inspired fighting between the Alawite community of Jebel Mohsen and the Sunni neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh, Ibbe, Abi Samra, al-Mankoubin, and Beddawi, has led to the deaths of 17 people and wounded almost a hundred. (fairobserver.com)
  • Tensions on both sides of the firing-line, Alawite and Sunni, are inflamed by each community's increasing sense that this battle, for control of Tripoli, is an existential conflict that they both must engage in. (fairobserver.com)
  • The Arab Democratic Party (ADP), which is the most powerful Alawite-majority political party in Lebanon, and the dominant political and military force in Jebel Mohsen, views the struggle with their neighbors as a vicious war of survival. (fairobserver.com)
  • Alawites, numbering 60,000 in a city of almost half a million potential Sunni enemies, and surrounded on all sides by neighborhoods that they are locked in seemingly interminable combat with, identify more strongly with the Alawite-led Syrian government than ever before. (fairobserver.com)
  • As the Syrian Civil War has progressed, and expressions of sectarian hatred and bloodshed between Sunni opposition forces and Alawites has increased, the Lebanese Alawite community of Jebel Mohsen has become even more convinced that it is resisting its potential annihilation at the hands of committed Tripolian Salafist fighters. (fairobserver.com)
  • In 2004, King Abdullah of Jordan spoke for many when he warned about a "Shia crescent" sprawling across the Middle East, from Bahrain to Iran to Iraq through the Alawite Assad regime in Syria and into Hezbollah-friendly districts of Lebanon. (nationalinterest.org)
  • Sunni Muslims have led the revolt against Mr. Assad, whose minority Alawite sect has mostly stood with him. (typepad.com)
  • Sunni-Alawite tensions have been growing in parts of Lebanon as well, such as Tripoli, where the two groups live in neighboring districts. (typepad.com)
  • Another Hezbollah effort in Syria-training Shi'ite and Alawite militias-is "preparation for the possible collapse of the Syrian regime," says the Amit Center report. (prospect.org)
  • Reports say that in the town of Homs the Sunni Muslim opposition is decapitating Alawite Muslims. (euobserver.com)
  • Afterward, pro-government residents kidnapped six Sunni Muslims from the city, killing one. (wikipedia.org)
  • Although there was no direct reference to Shiites, it was clear that Rafei's Islam is that of Sunni Muslims. (mei.edu)
  • The long-simmering tensions between Sunni and Shia Muslims have come to the fore in Syria. (jewishexponent.com)
  • The clashes were between Sunni Muslims and Alawites, according to security and medical sources. (undispatch.com)
  • While the Islamic Republic's opposition to Western imperialism and Israel had given it much appeal among both Shi'a and Sunni Muslims for much of its existence, Iran's military intervention in Syria in support of Bashar Assad's murderous regime has taken away much of that appeal. (internationalviewpoint.org)
  • Hezbollah men are also present in Damascus, where their task officially is to defend the Sayida Zeinab shrine, a place of veneration for Shia Muslims, from the Sunni rebels. (tabletmag.com)
  • In 2000, many Lebanese - including Sunni Muslims - applauded Hezbollah for its role in the war against Israel but that admiration has now diminished said Bassel Salloukh, a political scientist at Beirut's Lebanese American University. (yalibnan.com)
  • It relieves the pressure on non-Muslims: indicative of the new thinking, Jordanian Salafi leader Abou Mohamad Tahawi recently stated that "The Alawi and Shi'i coalition is currently the biggest threat to Sunnis, even more than the Israelis. (danielpipes.org)
  • In the May 2018 parliamentary elections, Hezbollah won additional seats, and its power grew at the expense of Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, the leader of Lebanon's Sunni Muslims. (brookings.edu)
  • He said that despite EU efforts to isolate Assad, he has support from Iran and among Shia Muslims in Lebanon and Iraq. (euobserver.com)
  • The rebels reply that the Assads and the Baath Party are done in Syria and that negotiations are already underway between tribal and rebel faction leaders over what shape a post-war government will take. (strategypage.com)
  • The rebels, and many outside observers, see the Assad government as losing ground and combat power daily. (strategypage.com)
  • The rebels also receive reinforcements from Lebanon, in the form of Sunni volunteers. (strategypage.com)
  • If Sunni Arab rebels manage to unify or if foreign powers intervene directly, the survival of Assad's military is unlikely. (joshualandis.com)
  • Despite the fall of Qalamoun to Hezbollah and Assad regime troops in March, fighting has resumed in the Syrian region as well as the barren valley and rocky tops of Ersal in Lebanon, where rebels are also present. (ipsnews.net)
  • Syrian authorities have repeatedly charged that arms and fighters are being smuggled in from Lebanon to help the rebels fighting to overthrow Assad. (israelnationalnews.com)
  • Assad has been losing ground to the Sunni rebels. (aijac.org.au)
  • Hezbollah's escalation in Syria has, however, finally put to rest the idea reportedly entertained by some top Israeli government officials earlier in the war: that it would be best if Assad defeated the rebels because he is "the devil we know. (prospect.org)
  • A lot of them see the Syria crisis in a good v evil scenario where an opressed Sunni population is fighting to topple an evil dictator. (moonofalabama.org)
  • A Sunni gunman fires in a front of burned car during a clashes, in the northern port city of Tripoli, Lebanon, Sunday, May 13, 2012. (csmonitor.com)
  • Sectarian violence linked to the unrest in neighboring Syria shook the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli the past three days. (csmonitor.com)
  • The year-long crisis in Syria has exacerbated sectarian tensions between two adjacent districts in Tripoli , Lebanon 's second city, transforming them into a microcosm of the turmoil and bloodshed wracking Syria. (csmonitor.com)
  • Although clashes are not uncommon here, the past three days have witnessed some of the fiercest fighting between Sunnis and Alawites in Tripoli in years, killing eight people, including a Lebanese soldier, and wounding more than 50. (csmonitor.com)
  • One person was killed and seven others were wounded in clashes on Sunday in Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli, between factions supporting and opposed to the revolt in neighboring Syria. (israelnationalnews.com)
  • Fighting in Syria spilled over yesterday into north Lebanon where at least four people were killed and 60 wounded, including nine Lebanese soldiers, during clashes between supporters and opponents of Damascus in the port city of Tripoli. (undispatch.com)
  • Syrian armed opposition forces are also using Lebanon, especially Tripoli, as a base of strategic depth for military action in Syria, and have brought their wounded to hospitals in Tripoli, and use the city and its suburbs as a place to house their families. (fairobserver.com)
  • The Sunni demographic advantage in the regions of northern Lebanon surrounding Tripoli offers a logical base of support for the development of an incipient, highly-motivated, and combative Lebanese Salafist social current to develop. (fairobserver.com)
  • Meanwhile, fighting between pro- and anti-Assad gunmen erupted for a fourth day Thursday in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli. (typepad.com)
  • Pro-Assad Alawites in Tripoli, north Lebanon last week started a gunfight with anti-Assad Sunnis after they defaced pro-Assad posters. (euobserver.com)
  • But Arab Christians in the town are worried in case local Sunnis - the majority in Tripoli - try to break away from Lebanon in order to join the Sunni-rebel-controlled part of Syria. (euobserver.com)
  • The growing anti-Western, anti-Hezbollah, anti-Iran Salafist movement is flourishing in some mosques and in towns, particularly in northern Lebanon. (mei.edu)
  • One of the features of the Arab spring was Sunni (power) and some Islamist forces feel that they don't have to deal with Iran and Hezbollah on an indirect level any longer. (mei.edu)
  • And, like the Saudis, the Israelis have sided with the Sunni militants in Syria because the Israelis share the Saudi view that Iran and the so-called Shiite crescent reaching from Tehran and Baghdad to Damascus and Beirut is the greatest threat to their interests in the Middle East. (informationclearinghouse.info)
  • In recent years, these historic enemies have cooperated in their joint disdain for the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt (which was overthrown in 2013), in seeking the ouster of the Assad regime in Syria, and in pressing for a more hostile U.S. posture toward Iran. (informationclearinghouse.info)
  • Israel and Saudi Arabia also have collaborated in efforts to put the squeeze on Russia s President Vladimir Putin, who is deemed a key supporter of both Iran and Syria. (informationclearinghouse.info)
  • Israel s odd-couple alliances with Sunni interests have evolved over the past several years, as Israel and Saudi Arabia emerged as strange bedfellows in the geopolitical struggle against Shiite-ruled Iran and its allies in Iraq, Syria and southern Lebanon. (informationclearinghouse.info)
  • Rai's statements came at a time when Hezbollah -- the Shiite Muslim political and militant group designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government -- has strong alliances with Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria and with Iran in its conflicts with Sunni-majority Gulf states. (catholicnewsagency.com)
  • Shiite Iran has supported Assad both directly and through its Lebanese militia, Hezbollah. (jewishexponent.com)
  • Saddam's invasion of Iran in 1980 was billed as an Arab war against Persians - and was bankrolled by the Arab and Sunni Gulf states. (theguardian.com)
  • Lebanon's Hezbollah, a militant Shia group backed by Iran and supporting Assad, reinforces this binary narrative. (theguardian.com)
  • Moreover, the situation in Syria will likely weaken the militia's linkage to Iran providing a better environment to help Hezbollah's military wing move from violence to politics. (smallwarsjournal.com)
  • Syria's border with Lebanon is essential for transporting arms from Iran to Hezbollah. (smallwarsjournal.com)
  • Additionally, Hezbollah's unequivocal support of the Assad regime during its continued violence against Syrians has already damaged its image among Sunni Arab supporters who tended to see Hezbollah as a force against Israel, rather than a pawn for Iran. (smallwarsjournal.com)
  • It was clear whom March 14th views as its primary enemies: Syria and Iran, both of which equip Hezbollah in the country's south. (city-journal.org)
  • This intervention and other interventions in Lebanon and Iraq have also bankrupted Iran economically. (internationalviewpoint.org)
  • Advocates of this position considered that the Assad regime represented the most brittle and reluctant element in the Iran-led "resistance bloc. (tabletmag.com)
  • Iran has also mobilized its regional clients and proxies, like the pro-Iranian Maliki government in Iraq, and the Hezbollah organization, which dominates Lebanon, to provide further assistance, including boots on the ground. (tabletmag.com)
  • Will it stay aligned with Iran, try to retain its arms and argue it is the only deterrence against an Israeli attack on Lebanon? (yalibnan.com)
  • Publicly, Hezbollah leaders insist Assad won't be defeated and the "axis of resistance" of Iran, Syria and Hezbollah will endure. (yalibnan.com)
  • In Iraq, militias loyal to Iran and led by the Quds Corps secured the "land bridge" over which personnel, equipment and arms were transported from Iran towards southern Syria and Lebanon. (swp-berlin.org)
  • The editor of a premier pan-Arab daily newspaper is warning with the eventual departure of American forces from Iraq, the vacuum will be filled by Syria and Iran, and 'with friends like these, who needs enemies? (joshualandis.com)
  • He argued that Iraq would be taken over by Iran and Syria, which are seeking to dominate the Middle East, and that the result would be the spread of extremism and violence throughout the region. (joshualandis.com)
  • Both Iran and Syria are 'getting ready' for the American departure, he said. (joshualandis.com)
  • After the devouring of Iraq and Lebanon at the hands of Iran and Syria, the Gulf region will be under the siege of the Islamic revolution and under pressure from Syrian meddling,' he said. (joshualandis.com)
  • Syria also acts as a reliable ally through which supplies of money and weapons can transit from Iran to Lebanon. (yalibnan.com)
  • As one example of potential situations that Hezbollah fears, the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood, long abused by the Assad dynasty in such acts as the massacre by Hafez-al Assad at Hama in 1982, would be highly reluctant to accept the continued Iranian patronage and guidance that characterises the current Assad-Iran relationship. (yalibnan.com)
  • Iran, a long-standing ally of the Assad regime, has deployed the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syria, provided weapons and intelligence to the government, and sent Pakistani and Afghan mercenaries to fight in pro-Assad militias. (motherjones.com)
  • Hezbollah has long used Syria as a conduit for military support from Iran, its main patron. (motherjones.com)
  • It inspires greater Sunni Arab anger at Tehran, especially as the Islamic Republic of Iran has been providing arms, finance, and technology to help repress Syrians. (danielpipes.org)
  • Among Sunni elements opposed to the advance of Iran, concerns have focused less on the nuclear elements of the deal - that is, whether it will effectively halt Iran's march toward the bomb. (aijac.org.au)
  • Once upon a time, the Shia-majority nations of the Middle East were ruled by monarchs and strongmen who were largely unsympathetic to the idea of Shia power-Iraq under the Sunni Saddam Hussein, Bahrain under the Saudi-backed Khalifa dynasty, and Iran under the Pahlavis. (nationalinterest.org)
  • That's all changed over the past thirty-five years, first with the Islamic Revolution in Iran, which produced an aggressively Islamist Shia government, and then with the American occupation of Iraq, which effectively transferred governance away from the Sunnis. (nationalinterest.org)
  • So it came as no surprise when the Saudis helped the Sunni monarchy in Bahrain squash a Shia uprising during the Arab Spring, or when many of the Sunni powers leapt behind efforts to depose the Iran-linked Assad regime. (nationalinterest.org)
  • This aversion to Iran courses deeply through the remaining Sunni rulers, especially in Saudi Arabia. (nationalinterest.org)
  • Nasrallah has forfeited his image as a hero in the Arab world, and the Resistance Axis of Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and Syria has come undone . (prospect.org)
  • Iran can no more invade and conquer a Sunni country than Saudi Arabia could invade Iran and overthrow its government (at least not on its own, it couldn't). (richardsilverstein.com)
  • Hezbollah, together with Syria, form the core of the coalition bloc led by Iran. (lu.se)
  • Amidst this uncertainty, other opposition groups blamed the Assad regime for the blasts which killed more than 60 people while the Russian Foreign Ministry said it believed al-Qaeda was behind the attack. (dailymirror.lk)
  • Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar together with the newly set-up pro-US regime in Libya have taken a plunge into the crisis in Syria and are seeking to topple the Assad regime, knowing well such an outcome would serve the US and Israeli interests better. (dailymirror.lk)
  • Saudi Arabia is the worlds biggest supporter of an extreme version of sunni islam that has contributed a lot to the emergence of jihadism, and now it becomes more and more openly agressive, like in Jemen. (project-syndicate.org)
  • At the same time, Sunni groups, with major backing from Sunni states like Saudi Arabia, have joined the fray. (jewishexponent.com)
  • Extremist Sunni preachers based in Saudi Arabia or Kuwait abuse Shia as "idol-worshippers" - the intolerant language of Wahhabi exclusivity. (theguardian.com)
  • Iran's recent alliance with Turkey in competition with Saudi Arabia and Saudi Arabia's new ally, Israel, once again shows that the power struggle within the region transcends the Shia-Sunni divide and now even the Muslim-Jewish divide. (internationalviewpoint.org)
  • In the past I put the blame on other regional states, mostly Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Sunni-based Gulf monarchies, for deliberately fuelling the Sunni-sectarian Islamist parts of the opposition, in order to help Assad divide the Syrian masses on religious lines, thereby undermining the initial democratic character of the uprising. (links.org.au)
  • Given the fact that there is a large Shia minority in Saudi Arabia in the eastern oilfields region, where rebellion is centred, and that the Shia majority led the uprising in Bahrain against the minority Sunni sectarian monarchy, this fomenting of sectarianism regionally also allows these monarchies to demonise the uprisings in their countries as nothing but Iranian subversion. (links.org.au)
  • If Sunni governments - notably those of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar - choose to intervene on behalf of fellow Sunnis against Alawis, that is their prerogative but Western states have no dog in this fight. (danielpipes.org)
  • We saw differing perspectives on the conflict, and we saw Sunni and Shia breaking the mould to jointly oppose violence. (upf.org)
  • Yesterday we spent a day in Montreux to give a signal to the world that at least 40 governments want to be of support to Syria in trying to find a solution to the current conflict. (upf.org)
  • Mikati, who had called for a "national salvation" government to ensure stability in a country shaken by the conflict in neighboring Syria, said on Thursday he would not put his name forward again because he could not win consensus backing. (voanews.com)
  • He is part of a growing movement in Lebanon and other Arab countries in which the Salafists -- acting as guardians for Sunni interests -- are using the civil war in Syria to gain political power and revive the sectarian conflict with their historical foes, the Shiites. (mei.edu)
  • Some Lebanese remarked that Assir's confrontational rhetoric is new even for Lebanon, where, after decades of conflict among the country's multiple sects, the Lebanese settled on speaking delicately in euphemisms, calling their sectarian feeling "fitna," the word in Arabic for social disorder. (mei.edu)
  • But there is also the danger that the conflict in Syria spreading to the region. (dailymirror.lk)
  • The increasingly sectarian nature of the Syrian conflict is rearing its ugly head in Lebanon with greater frequency these days. (undispatch.com)
  • As I explained in a recent article ( links.org.au/node/3714 ), the Assad regime bears the main responsibility for the exacerbation of sectarianism in the Syrian conflict, on both sides. (links.org.au)
  • Its military tried to establish itself in Syria, with the aim, inter alia, of creating a "second front" in the conflict with Israel. (swp-berlin.org)
  • Those calls to action fall into three main categories: a Sunni Muslim concern for co-religionists, a universal humanitarian concern to stop torture and murder, and a geopolitical worry about the impact of the ongoing conflict. (danielpipes.org)
  • Tripoli's conflict, long-boiling before the start of the Syrian conflict, is now intractably linked to the war waging in Syria. (fairobserver.com)
  • External factors are scrutinised, including the strategic and tactical lessons learned from other jihadist conflict zones and the complex interplay between al-Qaeda and the Islamic State and how it has influenced the jihadist sphere in Syria. (hurstpublishers.com)
  • The clashes breached a truce agreed to by political leaders less than 24 hours earlier in a bid to halt fighting fueled by the conflict in neighboring Syria. (typepad.com)
  • In Syria, what began one year ago with anti-government graffiti in the town of Daraa has become a fully-blown sectarian conflict. (euobserver.com)
  • The conflict in Syria has already exposed the fragility of Lebanon. (euobserver.com)
  • They also thought that because Assad himself was not an Islamist-nor even a Muslim in the generally accepted sense of that term-his commitment to the "resistance bloc" was purely pragmatic in nature. (tabletmag.com)
  • Sunnis jihadi warriors, in response, could turn Syria into the global nexus of violent Islamist terrorism - one bordering NATO and Israel. (danielpipes.org)
  • This book assesses and explains the emergence since 2011 of Sunni jihadist organisations in Syria's fledgling insurgency, charts their evolution and situates them within the global Islamist project. (hurstpublishers.com)
  • The most fascinating parts of the work are those that deal with Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham, militarily the two most powerful non-ISIS Islamist/jihadi forces in Syria. (hurstpublishers.com)
  • Syria is trying to market itself as a key ally in the struggle against al-Qaida style Islamist terrorism in the region. (jpost.com)
  • Fatah al-Islam is the mysterious Sunni Islamist organization that emerged last year in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in Lebanon. (jpost.com)
  • But Lebanese Shi'ites are growing nervous amid heightened sectarian tensions in Lebanon and Lebanese Sunni Muslim and Christian leaders are trying to engage Hezbollah in discussions about how it sees the future, but to little avail. (yalibnan.com)
  • A renewed PKK insurgency against the hostile government ruling Turkey, or increased Sunni-Alevi tensions in that country, hardly rank as major Western concerns. (danielpipes.org)
  • Whether sooner or later, after Assad and his lovely wife decamp, Islamists will likely seize power, Sunnis will take vengeance, and regional tensions will play out within Syria. (danielpipes.org)
  • It is located about 35 kilometers (22 mi) south of Homs and is situated in a mountainous area overlooking Syria's border with Lebanon which lies 15 kilometres (9.3 miles) to the southwest. (wikipedia.org)
  • To avoid this, Assad is likely to pursue the Lebanon option: turn Syria into a swamp and create chaos out of Syria's sects and factions. (joshualandis.com)
  • Failure to take these steps, they argued, would prolong Syria's bloody civil war, boost the role of Islamic radicals such as al Qaeda, increase the chance that Syria's chemical weapons will end up in dangerous hands, and cause the U.S. to be shut out of the country after the Assad regime falls. (foreignpolicy.com)
  • Talking to Assad is virtually certain to neither produce peace nor prompt any positive changes in Syria's statecraft. (jpost.com)
  • Tomorrow, officials from around the world will convene in Tunisia as part of a new 'Friends of Syria' group focused on addressing Syria's crisis. (syria-report.com)
  • Also, overthrowing the Assad regime does not mean the sudden end of Syria's civil war. (danielpipes.org)
  • That Syria's ongoing civil war is so brutal and protracted has only compounded the situation, as have developments in Iraq and Lebanon. (hurstpublishers.com)
  • Gunfire first broke out on Saturday between the Islamists and the army as the young demonstrators, sympathizers of the revolt in Syria, tried to approach the offices of the pro-Assad Syrian Social Nationalist Party. (israelnationalnews.com)
  • Already, Sunni Islamists in Lebanon are becoming more outspoken in their hostility towards Hezbollah, warning the group it will be held accountable for any Sunni blood it sheds in Syria. (yalibnan.com)
  • It is the monumental study of the Islamists in Syria by Charles R. Lister … The book reflects years of painstaking research and personal contacts on the ground by the author who has interacted with most major Syrian rebel groups. (hurstpublishers.com)
  • But a particular group of Sunni Islamists are now being presented by the Syrian regime as evidence of Damascus's status as a fellow sufferer from the al-Qaida scourge. (jpost.com)
  • BEIRUT - Lebanese politician Tammam Salam, a former minister from a prominent Sunni Muslim political dynasty, emerged as a potential new prime minister on Thursday when he was endorsed by the country's pro-Western March 14 coalition. (voanews.com)
  • In Lebanon, sectarianism has been a primary feature of the country's politics for decades. (mei.edu)
  • An estimated 60% of Lebanon's people are Muslim, evenly split among Sunni and Shia, and nearly 35% of the country's population is Christian, most of whom are Maronite Catholic Christians. (catholicnewsagency.com)
  • Unemployment in Lebanon had risen and the country's national currency had lost at least 80% of its value against the U.S. dollar since last year, according to AP. (catholicnewsagency.com)
  • Yemen's deepening crisis involves the rebel Houthis of the Zaydi sect, linked to Shia Islam but close to the country's majority Sunni doctrine. (theguardian.com)
  • The country's Sunni minority has sided with anti-Assad Sunnis in Syria. (euobserver.com)
  • Amir specializes in Sunni-Shiite relations. (mei.edu)
  • Alawaites are members of a sub-sect of Shiite Islam and they dominate the ruling clique in Syria, a Sunni majority country. (dailymirror.lk)
  • Since the beginning of the Syria revolution, politics have pushed its people away from their Bekaa neighbours, who mostly belong to the Shiite community. (ipsnews.net)
  • The trend was only exacerbated when the town remained under siege for several weeks early this year, after the village became a transit point from Syria into Lebanon for booby-trapped cars targeting Shiite areas. (ipsnews.net)
  • The behind-the-scenes Israeli-Saudi alliance has put the two governments uncomfortably at times on the side of Sunni jihadists battling Shiite influence in Syria, Lebanon and even Iraq. (informationclearinghouse.info)
  • Since an unwritten interpretation of the Lebanese constitution has certain sects heading the highest offices of government, i.e the President is Maronite Christian, the Prime Minster is Sunni Muslim, and the Speaker of Parliament is Shiite, the regional-and sectarian--implications of regime change in Syria are acutely felt within and among the Lebanese political elite. (smallwarsjournal.com)
  • This Shiite political party and militant group formed in 1985 to oppose Israel's occupation of Lebanon. (motherjones.com)
  • As a major Shiite power, it defends fellow Shiites like Assad in Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon. (richardsilverstein.com)
  • One wonders whether Syria will soon be like Iraq with bombs going off in civilian centres. (dailymirror.lk)
  • Consequently, regionally driven sectarian conflicts in Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon persist, creating more extremism across all national boundaries. (jewishexponent.com)
  • In Iraq, carved by the British out of three Ottoman provinces, a poor, largely rural, Shia majority, a Sunni minority, and the Kurds were the predominant groups. (theguardian.com)
  • Trump and Netanyahu have claimed that the Iranian government had violated the terms of the 2015 nuclear agreement by holding on to secret plans for developing nuclear weapons, by promoting a ballistic missile program and by its military intervention in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq. (internationalviewpoint.org)
  • Iran's biggest fundamental problem is that a majority of its allies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen are primarily military and terrorist actors. (swp-berlin.org)
  • European governments have also repeatedly made it clear in the past few years that they consider the Islamic Republic's approach in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen problematic. (swp-berlin.org)
  • However, events have raised the question of Iran's actual strength in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. (swp-berlin.org)
  • Nevertheless, what is new today is Damascus's endeavor to reorganize the Baathist rather than the Sunni elements as is commonly believed, in order to ensure Syrian influence in Iraq. (joshualandis.com)
  • The commentary noted Syria wants the Golan Heights without war and wants to win America over 'without having to adopt a moderate approach or refrain from interfering in Lebanon or Iraq. (joshualandis.com)
  • The central government appears certain to weaken over time, but the proposal of a new al-Qaida haven arising in the Sunni triangle is not the most significant threat that would emerge from a post-U.S. Iraq. (joshualandis.com)
  • As ISIS spread in Syria and Iraq, the United States responded with airstrikes, special forces troops, and support for Kurdish-led forces. (motherjones.com)
  • Iraq, which has conducted airstrikes on ISIS inside Syria, may play a larger role in the fight if the US withdraws. (motherjones.com)
  • Charles Lister, one of the very few Syria commentators to deserve the label "expert" … Lister ably illuminates the jihadist labyrinth, tracing the roles of Chechens and Uzbeks, and crucially, of the Iraqi groups preceding ISIL - Tawheed Wal Jihad, Al Qaeda-in-Iraq (AQI), and the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI). (hurstpublishers.com)
  • That revival triggered a ferocious counterreaction from Sunnis, who streamed into Iraq for a chance to spill the blood of heretical Shia. (nationalinterest.org)
  • As the Syrian civil war rages across the Lebanese border, the public debate is raw, and Shiites and Sunnis speak openly about their mistrust for one another. (mei.edu)
  • Assir has been making the case in the media that the Shiites across the region are trying to avenge the Sunni rise to power in countries such as Egypt, where the Muslim Brotherhood now holds the presidency. (mei.edu)
  • However, the divide separating Ersal residents from those residing in surrounding villages dates back to the beginning of the uprising and a spate of tit-for-tat kidnappings between Sunnis and Shiites. (ipsnews.net)
  • Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah also sends men to fight in Syria, especially to the border town of Al-Qusayr, he says. (worldcrunch.com)
  • An Assad defeat would likely embolden Sunni opponents to challenge Hezbollah's status as a state within the state. (yalibnan.com)
  • Accordingly, Hezbollah's support for Assad is predicated on its perception of his political survival as both realistically possible and compatible with Hezbollah's objectives. (yalibnan.com)
  • If Nasrallah believes it necessary, he will quietly move to put Hezbollah's support behind a successor to Assad. (yalibnan.com)
  • In Lebanon, Hezbollah's current power has been won by blending occasional acts of coercive force with a remarkable cross-sectarian alliance supported by Michel Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement and once-fierce Shia rivals, Amal. (yalibnan.com)
  • Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, also warns that Israel is always a threat to Lebanon and Hezbollah. (brookings.edu)
  • Hezbollah's professed raison d'être as an armed organization-defending Lebanon from Israel-has shattered, argues Anat Kurz, research director of the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University. (prospect.org)
  • On Jan. 18, 2015, for instance, Israel attacked Lebanese-Iranian advisers assisting Assad s government in Syria, killing several members of Hezbollah and an Iranian general. (informationclearinghouse.info)
  • Israel then, notified Russia before responding with air attacks on 50 Iranian military and security installations in Syria. (internationalviewpoint.org)
  • these two relatively powerful states are engaged in an aggressive regional "sub-imperialist" project, with the dual aims of rivaling Iranian influence in the region, and turning the democratic impulse of the Arab Spring, including its Syrian chapter, into a Sunni-Shia sectarian war. (links.org.au)
  • Direct Iranian aid for the Assad regime has come in the form of financial assistance, provision of vital equipment and arms, and also the presence on the ground of Revolutionary Guard advisers who are expert in guerrilla warfare and have helped to organize, train, and direct the militias that provide an essential prop for the beleaguered Syrian dictator and his regime. (tabletmag.com)
  • Maliki has permitted his territory to be used to transport Iranian weapons into Syria, despite American pressure for him to stop. (tabletmag.com)
  • Further, as Meir Javedanfar argues on this site, the Iranian clerical leadership will only support Assad to the degree that this support serves their ongoing Islamic revolution. (yalibnan.com)
  • Israel, which has occupied the Golan Heights since 1967, has launched airstrikes on Iranian targets, Hezbollah, and other militias in Syria. (motherjones.com)
  • the location may be less than ideal, but what better than for it to fight the Pasdaran (Iran's Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps) to the death in Syria? (danielpipes.org)
  • The Iranian creation and proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon is the dominant political and military force in that country. (aijac.org.au)
  • In Syria, beleaguered dictator and Iranian client Assad remains in control in the west and south largely because of Iranian support and assistance - up to $1 billion per month, according to some estimates. (aijac.org.au)
  • Is Lebanon's Hezbollah Doing Assad's Dirty Work In Syria? (worldcrunch.com)
  • A number of fighters from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighting Assad's forces have also fled here, so all the refugee families in the area's Sunni villages live in fear of cross-border attacks by Assad's soldiers. (worldcrunch.com)
  • They also fear Assad's secret service agents, who routinely cross over to Lebanon. (worldcrunch.com)
  • Lebanon was never going to escape the fallout of Bashar al-Assad's civil war. (mei.edu)
  • These states are calibrating their policies towards Syria with an eye on Assad's potential fall from power and the consequences likely to follow. (yalibnan.com)
  • Hezbollah knows that if Assad's regime collapses, Syria will face a power struggle between factions of Alawites and Sunnis in which the outcome would be far from certain. (yalibnan.com)
  • More and more Assad supporters have fled to Damascus and western Syria (the sea coast area where Alawites are the majority). (strategypage.com)
  • If Assad must withdraw from Damascus, he will have nowhere to fall back on but Latakia and the coastal mountains. (joshualandis.com)
  • Two car bombs in Damascus last week, a rebellion in some parts of the country, a UN ceasefire observer team coming under fire from unknown quarters and a victory for the ruling Baath party in elections combine to send confusing signals as to what is going on in Syria. (dailymirror.lk)
  • The force from this "Cedar Revolution" (along with external pressure from the United States, France, and the United Nations) convinced Damascus that its control over Lebanon had become untenable, and on March 14, 2005, Syria withdrew its 15,000 soldiers and uprooted its intelligence apparatus. (city-journal.org)
  • While Israeli spokesmen have been keen to stress that Israel has no desire to intervene in the Syrian civil war and wants only to stop weapons shipments to Hezbollah, it is quite likely that the beleaguered position of the Assad regime was also factored into the consideration of Israeli planners in devising the air action over Damascus. (tabletmag.com)
  • It lessens the chances of Damascus from starting a war with Israel or re-occupying Lebanon. (danielpipes.org)
  • Both Iraqi and Jordanian officials have confirmed that recent warnings and appeals to Damascus regarding the presence of senior al-Qaida figures in Syria have gone unheeded. (jpost.com)
  • Miliband, in Damascus, held up the establishing of formal diplomatic relations between Syria and Lebanon as an example of the encouraging transformation in Syrian attitudes. (jpost.com)
  • Specialists on both Syria and jihadi extremists should pore over The Syrian Jihad and build on Lister's extensive research. (hurstpublishers.com)
  • The Syrians have also been touting the Sunni jihadi threat as the reason for increased Syrian-Lebanese security cooperation. (jpost.com)
  • In Bahrain, the Sunni Al Khalifa dynasty rules over a Shia majority denied its rightful place in the system, but Manama blames Tehran for fomenting unrest. (theguardian.com)
  • Meanwhile the ruling Assad dynasty stockpiled missiles and poison gas. (prospect.org)
  • As a Shi'ite minority in a greater Sunni world with the sectarianization of the region I think they realize now that if anything they should stockpile more weapons," Salloukh said. (yalibnan.com)
  • One would thought that after being incacerated in Guantanamo Bay amd accused of terrorism, Mr Begg will stay away from jihadist hotspots like Syria. (moonofalabama.org)
  • The Shia Islamic group has acknowledged that it was fighting for Assad, at least indirectly, when it confirmed that a high-ranking commander in its military wing, the Islamic Resistance, had been killed "performing his jihadist duty ," calling him 'a martyr in the Holy War. (worldcrunch.com)
  • However, there is no denying that a dangerous level of Sunni sectarianism has grown, especially among the more extreme 'jihadist' fringe affiliated to al-Qaida, and that this is an entirely negative and reactionary development. (links.org.au)
  • Last week Hamas-a Sunni group tied to the Muslim Brotherhood- demanded that Hezbollah withdraw from Syria. (prospect.org)
  • A neutral Lebanon is able to contribute to the stability of the region as well, defend the rights of the Arab peoples and the cause of peace, and play a role in weaving healthy and secure relations between the countries of the Middle East and Europe, by virtue of its location on the shore of the Mediterranean," he said. (catholicnewsagency.com)
  • Time was, across the Arab world, that it was simply rude to ask people their religion or sect, even if it was obvious from their name, their accent, from where they lived or worshipped or the pictures on their walls that they were a Sunni Muslim, Shia, or Christian. (theguardian.com)
  • Additionally, others worried that the Arab League suspension of Syria and the U.S. Spy-Gate catastrophe , in which Hezbollah apparently rolled up a network of CIA informants, would cause disruption. (smallwarsjournal.com)
  • With EU countries crafting plans on how to shape events in Syria, David Hirst, a noted British writer on the Middle East, has warned that the Arab uprisings are a kind of "constructive chaos" out of Western control. (euobserver.com)
  • Just as Lebanon's Maronites did not create an independent state in the Lebanon Mountains, they did use it to deny Muslim forces undivided supremacy over Lebanon. (joshualandis.com)
  • Gee, I wonder how Sec State Kerry feels about aiding rebel forces fighting against the "reformer" Assad? (longwarjournal.org)
  • The Forces opposing Assad & those assisting him are also surely experiencing resource & manpower issue's. (longwarjournal.org)
  • One source familiar with U.S. intelligence information on Syria told me that Israel has a non-aggression pact with these Nusra forces. (informationclearinghouse.info)
  • Lebanon arose and followed the line of neutrality and impartiality from its founding until 1969 when the 'Cairo Agreement,' which allowed Palestinian refugees to possess heavy weapons and fight Israel from Lebanese lands, and the subsequent emergence of Lebanese and non-Lebanese military forces outside the state," he said. (catholicnewsagency.com)
  • The composure of the Lebanese Armed Forces in 2011 helped Lebanon weather the storm of the UN Special Tribunal investigating the Hariri murder. (smallwarsjournal.com)
  • Throughout, Lebanon and its armed forces stood firm. (smallwarsjournal.com)
  • The refugee issue and the Shebaa Farms requirement will likely prove difficult (or impossible) to resolve without a Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement, but disarming the Palestinian militias within Lebanon and strengthening the Lebanese Armed Forces' defense capabilities are maybe more doable. (smallwarsjournal.com)
  • Its fighters have battled Sunni opposition groups like the FSA, aided by Russian forces. (motherjones.com)
  • In the years since the war began in 2011, Israel has attacked Hezbollah weapons depots and forces in Syria, and Hezbollah boasts that it shot down an Israeli F-16 jet. (brookings.edu)
  • The Lebanese Sunni fighters of Bab al-Tabbaneh and its allied neighborhoods insist that their support for the Syrian opposition, especially its armed elements, is necessary to help the Syrians resist oppression. (fairobserver.com)
  • In 2003, when Saddam was overthrown, Iraqi Shia celebrated by invoking the martyrdom of their revered Imam Hussein at the hands of the Sunni Umayyads at the battle of Kerbala in 680. (theguardian.com)
  • To honor that achievement, the coalition of Sunnis, Druze, Christians, and liberal Shi'a who had taken to the streets named their impromptu political alliance after this momentous date. (city-journal.org)
  • The eruption of the anti-Assad revolution in Syria has had many unintended consequences, among which is the opportunity it offered Sunni jihadists to establish a foothold in the heart of the Middle East. (hurstpublishers.com)
  • The thin, wiry preacher, who follows the austere Salafi sect of Sunni Islam, says he has not slept for three days and suffers from a persistent cough which he blames on smoke inhalation from burning tires and explosive residue. (csmonitor.com)
  • Lebanese author and commentator Michael Young argues the ouster of Assad will weaken Hezbollah significantly, although it will not mean the end of the movement. (yalibnan.com)
  • His latest incarnation, from his mosque in the coastal town of Sidon, is as a firebrand political Salafist whose objectives transcend the confines of Lebanon. (mei.edu)
  • The battle between Tripoli's restive Sunni neighborhood and Jebel Mohsen is the new training ground of an aspiring generation of Lebanese Salafist fighters looking to emulate the model of their Syrian compatriots. (fairobserver.com)
  • My question to Dr. Landis is whether falling back on the coast is a realistic survival strategy for Assad and the Alawis? (joshualandis.com)
  • Jordanian Salafi leader Abou Mohamad Tahawi sees Alawis and Shi'is - not Israelis - as the greatest threat to Sunnis. (danielpipes.org)
  • The State Department announced that it would provide $60 million in direct aid to the Syrian Opposition Coalition, an alliance of Syrian groups that has come out in support of the Al Nusrah Front after the US designated it as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and al Qaeda in Iraq's affiliate in Syria in December 2012. (longwarjournal.org)
  • They also called on the United States to support the establishment of safe zones inside Syria, to be protected by U.S. air power and other capabilities (but not American ground troops). (foreignpolicy.com)
  • Hezbollah, the party that has dominated the Lebanese government over the last year, is a particular target for its continuing support of Assad, as he orders the massacres of thousands of civilians. (mei.edu)
  • The main among them is that the Syrian Spring does not enjoy countrywide support, however dictatorial the Assad regime is. (dailymirror.lk)
  • The major rebel force benefiting from this support is al-Nusra Front, al-Qaeda s affiliate in Syria. (informationclearinghouse.info)
  • This means that he cannot count on Saudi support as it is withering away not because the yare not trying but because there is no such thing as a Sunni establishment with depth and social network and solid institutions. (joshualandis.com)
  • Clearly, because of the major forms of support that Assad provides, Hezbollah has a vested interest in his political survival. (yalibnan.com)
  • At their core, these realities mean that Hezbollah will not risk continued support for Assad if the price of that support is a substantial undercutting of the narrative upon which the organisation's power resides. (yalibnan.com)
  • Miliband's visit was clearly intended as a signal to the incoming US administration of London's support for the view of Syria as a potential guarantor of peace and stability in the region - if it can be tempted with the right inducements. (jpost.com)
  • Armed groups, terrorist groups, support by regional circles including the dangerous support by Turkey of the terrorist gangs, of providing these with sophisticated weapons and of giving each terrorist in the world, including al-Qaida, free access to Turkey to come to Syria. (typepad.com)
  • A reminder: Hezbollah stepped up its role this spring in Syria after months of low-profile support for the Assad regime. (prospect.org)
  • The democratic impulse was and is a mortal danger to their absolute monarchies just as much as to regime's like that of Assad, as Saudi Arabia's suppression of the uprising in Bahrain shows. (links.org.au)
  • In Syria, its intervention alongside Russia from 2015 onwards contributed to the Assad regime's victory in the civil war. (swp-berlin.org)
  • In September 2013, Israel s Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren, then a close adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told the Jerusalem Post that Israel favored the Sunni extremists over Assad. (informationclearinghouse.info)
  • My husband, [a Sunni Damascene] has Alawi family friends, and one of them has just joined an Alawi militia. (joshualandis.com)
  • All our problems, all the violence, all the poverty we suffer here are because of the Syrian regime," says Sheikh Bilal Masri, a militant Sunni cleric, talking over the crackle of a walkie talkie on his coffee table. (csmonitor.com)
  • At the bottom of the rugged Syrian Qalamoun mountain chain lies the predominantly Sunni town of Ersal. (ipsnews.net)
  • If Assad is successful in this ambition, there will be no clear endgame to the fighting in Syria. (joshualandis.com)
  • Obviously, an effort to gain standing in the post-Assad endgame. (longwarjournal.org)
  • Some, such as supporters of global jihad, have commitments external to Syria. (prospect.org)
  • If the Assad regime falls, supplies to Iran's ally Hizbollah which resists Israel's territorial expansionist designs in the region, will be cut off. (dailymirror.lk)
  • A toppling of the Assad regime would deprive Hezbollah not only of a key political ally but leave it weakened and facing foes keen to further diminish its power. (yalibnan.com)
  • Salam - a Sunni Muslim as all prime ministers must be under Lebanon's confessional distribution of power - is the son of a former prime minister. (voanews.com)
  • The future of Lebanon is currently being decided -- as French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter Aug. 9 following the explosion in Beirut's port -- and the leader of Lebanon's Maronite Catholics, Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai, is adamant that the only way forward for the country in crisis is a foundation of "active neutrality" that will lead to economic stability and security. (catholicnewsagency.com)
  • Lebanon's relative neutrality from the region's conflicts between 1943 and 1975 led to prosperity, increased growth, increased per capita income, and a decline in unemployment, until Lebanon was called the 'Switzerland of the East,'" Rai said. (catholicnewsagency.com)
  • On 21 May, Western newspapers highlighted the complex landscape of Lebanon's political map by interpreting the killing of a prominent Sunni sheikh at a military checkpoint in north Lebanon as an omen that sectarian violence would possibly begin in this religiously diverse country. (smallwarsjournal.com)
  • Mikati championed a policy of 'dissociation'' from the crisis in Syria but struggled to insulate his country from the turmoil. (voanews.com)
  • Prior to the outbreak of the civil war in Syria, an influential group of Israelis in the policymaking establishment favored a revival of efforts to make peace with Syria. (tabletmag.com)
  • A pro-US regime similar to the one in Libya will curtail Iran's influence in the region and deal a blow to Hizbollah, a mightier-than-state political and military unit within Lebanon. (dailymirror.lk)
  • The Israeli raids on Syrian targets in May cast light on the extent to which the Assad regime today is seen by Israel as a component part of Iran's projection of power into the Levant area. (tabletmag.com)
  • Iran's Revolutionary Guards are unmatched in clandestine and proxy warfare, having effectively created an alternative armed force for Assad when his own army became unreliable in 2012. (aijac.org.au)
  • Hezbollah also manufactures weapons in Lebanon, producing drones and guided missiles, amongst other systems. (brookings.edu)
  • A Syrian rebel crosses a street while trying to dodge sniper fire in the old city of Aleppo in northern Syria on March 11, 2013. (tabletmag.com)
  • Founded in 2011 by Syrian army defectors, the FSA is an umbrella of rebel groups opposed to the Assad regime. (motherjones.com)
  • A constant presence of armed Syrian opposition members, and their families, in these Sunni front-line neighborhoods and the constant inspiration they provide Tripoli's Sunni fighters. (fairobserver.com)
  • Hundreds of opposition groups have taken up arms against the Assad government-and sometimes each other. (motherjones.com)