Syria (Helimun)
-Syria and Iran are the two parties most responsible for spoiling U.S.-
backed peace efforts between the Arabs and Israel in order to promote
their own Arab and Islamic interests. For the United States, they were
also the most troublesome countries during the U.S. intervention in
Iraq because they aided, abetted or armed insurgents.
-The two regimes share common traits. They are both authoritarian and
defiantly independent, even at a political or economic cost. Iran is
predominantly Shiite. Although Syria is predominantly Sunni Muslim, its
ruling family is Alawite, a Shiite sect.
-At the same time, they are odd political bedfellows. Syria’s Baa’thist
ideology is strictly secular and socialist. Iran’s ideology is rigidly
religious and, in principle, opposed to atheist communism and its
offshoots. Yet their common strategic goals have held the alliance
together for three decades, despite repeated attempts to rend them
apart.
annaabi.ee 
