No spring for shiite Syria

Robert Fisk’s unsen­ti­men­tal analy­sis of Assad’s strengths

As long as Syr­ia can trade with Iraq, it can trade with Iran and, of course, it can trade with Lebanon. The Shia of Iran and the Shia major­i­ty in Iraq and the Shia lead­er­ship (though not major­i­ty) in Syr­ia and the Shia (the largest com­mu­ni­ty, but not a major­i­ty) in Lebanon will be on Assad’s side, how­ev­er reluc­tant­ly. That, I’m afraid, is the way the cook­ie crum­bles. Crazed Gaddafi had real ene­mies with fire­pow­er and Nato. Assad’s ene­mies have Kalash­nikovs and no Nato.

Extract from Robert Fisk — The Inde­pen­dent