MENA Minorities

An interesting piece on regime-minorities relations in Syria was was published recently: " The early reversal on minorities in Syria " by Yahya Alaous for The Syrian Observer . It has some very interesting arguments, which deserve some further discussion. The author argues that the regime might turn on the minorities (not the Alawites of  course)   once their service in the civil war is not any longer needed because their freedom threatens the regime's authority. Here a comparison is drawn to the war of Saddam Husain against Kuwait, his former ally against Iran. Even if I don't think the Syrian minorities can be compared to oil-rich Kuwait by any means, the main argument is definately valuable: What was accepted reluctantly by the regime in the past because of considerations concerning the minorities will no longer acceptable in the same way because the regime has enough burdens. So the regime will not hesitate to alleviate the burdens whenever it can—and ...