Emboldened by military gains, Assad regime shows resilience

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[QUOTE]During more than two years of a debilitating civil war, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has consistently defied predictions of an imminent downfall, and his regime is showing remarkable resilience.

The Syrian Army has scored tactical successes against rebel forces across the north, west, and south of the country, dismaying the opposition and possibly postponing a planned rebel “spring offensive" to storm the regime stronghold of central Damascus.

“Bashar’s game plan is to shoot it out till the end, bring out the worst in his enemies, and rally minorities around him in a regime redoubt,” says Andrew Tabler, a Syria expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

It is a plan that for now appears to be working, as “the end“ becomes harder to see. President Assad has managed to retain the loyalty of most of his Alawite community, the heterodox Shiite sect that forms the backbone of the regime, as well as other religious minorities who have watched with trepidation the rise of extremist rebel factions, such as the Al Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra, which is calling for a state governed under sharia law after Assad’s ouster.

Assad also can rely on the so-far unwavering support of international and regional backers – Russia, Iran, Shiite elements inside Iraq, and the Lebanese Shiite militant organization Hezbollah.

"Syria has real friends in the region and the world who will not allow Syria to fall into the hands of America or Israel or the Takfiris," Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah warned the Syrian opposition in a televised speech this week. Takfiris is a name given to some extremist Sunni Muslim jihadists who treat other religions as apostate.
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[url]http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2013/0502/Emboldened-by-military-gains-Assad-regime-shows-resilience[/url]