> so, what exactly did he do that the west hates him? the west does not hate him, but the (((west))) does. 1. his father (hafez al-assad) tried to organize an arab front against israel. unfortunately for him, the arab front was made up of arabs. 2. the syrians did not allow their orthodox christian (mostly maronite) population to be genocided or driven out. 3. assad belongs to the alewi sect, which is a subsect of shias. as a result, the syrian govt. is allied to iran (also shia) in order to stand up to the sunnis who rule most other arab states. it's complicated... but they need this alliance with iran, which the (((west))) finds objectionable. 4. syria owns the golan heights, which israel occupies and wants to keep. 5. geographically, syrian territory is well suited to build a pipeline connecting iranian and iraqi gas fields to the mediterranean. israel does not want this. neither does qatar or any of the other sunni kingdoms.
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