The fact that ‘sunnis’ are the main in opposition is not the point. They are the majority in the country, so that much is a given. But the fact that they are not all against assad, (and the ones that are, are not all supporting the violent rebellion either.. ) goes to show his support base is not sectarian based… It is a mixture from all background.
The sectarian narrative of a shia leader against sunni pop. is false and sold in the media solely for the reason to establish sectarianism where it didnt exist before… Simply with the reason to de-stabilise and destroy a country.
Syria was a secular country; with little hint of sectarian issues that we see in countries like pakistan, bahrain or saudi. If people had an issue, it was with the lack of democracy as opposed to anything else. And that is what the public initially came out for.
What they didnt bet on was the the saudi funded rebels in syria. the al qaeda groups, and west, turkey israel gulf arabs ( who ironically always disliked syria for their friendly ties with iran and hizbullah) sticking their oars in and hijacking their cause so eagerly, so spectacularly that the narrative turned on its head and all main intents, spirit and purpose was killed and buried beneath.
These ‘well wishers’ had been waiting for so long to get into syria., this was where their sole window of opportunity.
Please learn from iraq, how they instigated sectarianism to divide and destabilise a whole country. The narrative initially was poor oppressed shias by cruel sunnis.
Saddam was sunni yes, but his enemies was anyone who opposed his leadership, and the shias happened to be in the majority, ( there were so called shias in his gov).
But Saddam himself was secular, detesting religious ppl on both sides, however the official narrative took on a sectarian one, of sunni against shia as opposed to a dictator against its population. The media lapped it up and sold it over and over.
Surprise surprise, the west were itching to invade again to ‘save’ the poor shias (funny how they get blinkered on bahrain) and find the wmd, the arabs publicly opposed the invasion, yet they detested saddam and privately provided the logistics for the west, but it was iran that refused to support the invasion despite being the main (albeit unexpected) beneficiary…
They refused not least because of the expected collateral damage and destruction, but also because the last thing they wanted was the hostile west (axis of evil crap) setting up camp in its neighbourhood, and an unstable iraq with alqaeda on the run …yes they wanted saddam gone but def. not in this fashion. They didnt see anything good from the invasion at the time.
But look how fast iraq deteriorated into chaos, with people who were living together peacefully, intermarrying etc. to turning against each other to this day.
Now the shias are in power, the narrative in iraq has changed to the oppressed sunnis and oppresser shia.. Whilst the sectarian killings and bombings are still on going, on a daily basis.
They would not support saddam no, but they didnt support the invasions either. And if Assad had been as hostile as saddam, he would have been kept at arms length.
Bottom line is; it doesnt matter who is leading syria, iran would rather be on good terms and prefer peace than violence. If it was so hung up on sectarian issues, why is she trying to seek relations with sunni egypt, whilst saudi/arabs and salafis are dead against it? It is quite obvious who has the sectarian beef here, and it def. isnt iran.
So tell me, why haven’t any of these 50,000 strong force gone in to bahrain?
If this was about shia and sunni as you claim, where is the same military support for bahrain?
The shias are a majority in bahrain after all and and are relatively powerless compared to assad in syria, they would be the priority… But iran supporting their unarmed protest, even though many outside wish it was opposite, goes to show their policy is of restraint.
Still… the link you have posted quotes an israeli general throughout, who seems to be espousing his fears or agenda as opposed to reality.