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ns that abut it suggest a process of ethnic cleansing to prepare the way. An Alawite coastal ministate that folds in the port cities of Latakia and Tartus, home to the Russian navy's key warmwater port, may not be viable in the long run, but that doesn't mean the regime's core won't try for one. Even
tegists believe that it would be greatly to their country's advantage if Syria were dismembered and permanently weakened by the creation of a small Alawi state around the port-city of Latakia in the north-west, in much the same way as Iraq was dismembered and permanently weakened by the creation of
f the Assad regime would almost inevitably decrease Russian power in the Middle East and the Mediterranean. Syria has hosted Russia's naval base in Tartus for several decades and, since 1971, Syria has been Moscow's closest Arab ally. Syria is the largest Arab purchaser of Russian weapons and is seen
e a rat out of his drainage pipe in Libya? Or something profoundly cruel, such as the YouTube video of a Syrian man buried alive by shovel-wielding Alawi thugs taunting the victim to recite "There is no God but God and Bashar is his Prophet"? Or, alternatively, will we look back and see photos of Sau
he United States lacks after letting the Mubarak regime go down quickly. The real question is whether Russia will keep the Soviet-era naval base in Tartus on Syria's Mediterranean coast. While the disagreement on Libya led to Russia's abstention in the Security Council and was soon forgotten, the spa
some extent, the handiwork of the United States and its European allies. This perception is fundamentally wrong: Assad's is an oppressive, minority-Alawi regime. It came to power via a 1970 coup. In 1982, the current dictator's father, then president Hafez al- Assad, brought artillery and killed over
Entities connected to both Tartus and Alawi

Bashar al-Assad
PERSON
Barack Obama
PERSON
Lebanon
LOCATION
Tehran
LOCATION
Damascus
LOCATION
United States
LOCATION
George W. Bush
PERSON
Tunisia
LOCATION
Terje Rod-Larsen
PERSON
Bill Clinton
PERSON
Saddam Hussein
PERSON
Middle East
LOCATION
Benjamin Netanyahu
PERSONMediterranean
LOCATION
Bahrain
LOCATION
Yemen
LOCATION
Ankara
LOCATION
the Persian Gulf
LOCATION
al-Qaeda
ORGANIZATION
Hillary Clinton
PERSON