Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Light of the Alawites...
controlled just a fifth of Syria and may end up in charge of a rump state dominated by his minority Alawite sect.
Israel and its neighbor Syria are long-term enemies, but the remarks by Amos Gilad, strategic adviser to Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, reflect concerns by states across the region that Syria is undergoing a de facto partition after four years of civil war.
"Syria is gone. Syria is dying. The funeral will be declared in due time. This Bashir al-Assad, he will be remembered in history textbooks as the one who lost Syria," Gilad told an intelligence conference organized by the Israel Defense journal on Monday.
"Until now he has lost 75 percent of Syria ... He is, practically, governor of 20 percent of Syria. And his future, if I may predict it, is shrinking all of the time. And maybe we will have him as the president of 'Alawistan'," Gilad added.
Since March, Assad has steadily lost territory in the northwest, south and central Syria to an array of groups including Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
, the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, and rebels who profess a more moderate vision for Syria.