This from CNN.com:
Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement are risking their future ties with Syria by supporting embattled Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad now, the head of a leading Syrian opposition group says.Burhan Ghalioun, the chairman of the Syrian National Council, told CNN in an interview airing Tuesday that Iran is “participating in suppressing the Syrian people” by backing al-Assad, whose family’s 40-year regime has been a longtime Iranian ally. He also warned that the crackdown could lead to international military intervention.
“I hope that Iranians realize the importance of not compromising the Syrian-Iranian relationship by defending a regime whose own people clearly reject it and has become a regime of torture to its own people,” Ghalioun said. Tehran must understand “that this is the last chance to avoid an unwanted fate to the Syrian-Iranian relationship,” he said.
As for Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia that was allied with Syria during the years that Damascus dominated its smaller neighbor, Ghalioun said, “The Syrian people stood completely by Hezbollah once. But today, they are surprised that Hezbollah did not return the favor and support the Syrian’s people struggle for freedom.”
This, of course, should come as no surprise to anyone. Iran is terrified of the uprising in Syria, because they see the all-too-real possibility that just such an uprising is seething below the surface of its own population. If the Syrians succeed in throwing off the yoke of their oppressive tyrants, that could encourage the Iranian people to do the same. So the Iranian mullahs have to support Assad. Had they been smart about the situation, they would have tried to convince Assad months ago to lighten up in order to stay in power. That ship has probably sailed a long time ago at this point. To be fair to Iran, the powers there probably never thought that the Syrian people would ever get this far, which reflects their disdain for any populace, even their own.
Hezbollah, too, had no choice but to support Assad. Democratic elections in Syria could well lead, eventually, for diminished, or even abandoned, support for Hezbollah, which is the Syrian arm of terror and oppression in Lebanon. Democracy has a way of infecting those around it, and democracy is the mortal enemy of organizations such as Hezbollah. Brute force, such as that used by Assad, is the only currency Hezbollah knows, understands, can employ, and Assad’s regime can supply that much more effectively than a democratic, free Syria. Fortunately, the writing seems to be on the wall; Assad will fall. If Syria can then transform the resulting power vacuum into a functioning democracy, Hezbollah may well wither on the vine.
A win-win!