Bashar al-Assad may be gearing up to create an Alawite statelet along Syria’s coastal mountains. And he has the means to do it How long will President Bashar al-Assad remain in Damascus? His regime appears to be reeling: A bombing…
Author: tony badran
Bashar’s Cult of Personality
Last week, the daily Al-Joumhouria published the transcripts of the surveillance tapes in the case of former minister Michel Samaha, who was recently arrested and charged for plotting a campaign of terrorist bombings in northern Lebanon. Samaha was caught red-handed,…
Assad May Be Trying to Set Up Defense in Mountain Region
The regime of Bashar Assad appears to be using mass killings and intimidation to carve out a defensible mountainous region on the Mediterranean coast where it can survive and retain influence even if rebels take over the rest of Syria…
Strategic Geography and the End of Assad
The latest military developments in Syria are now generally understood as ushering in a new phase in the Syrian conflict. What’s less observed is that the minority Alawite regime’s mass killings of Sunnis and the intense fighting around the cities…