“It would appear Morsi is taking a position based on the age-old denominational conflict inside Islam rather than some regional calculation.”
No “appearance” to it and Morsi is fooling no one in the Middle East, only gullible westerners. The Syrian phony “civil war” IS a proxy war in the age-old Shia-Sunni conflict inside Syria. It has Sunni radical fundamentalist Islamists Wahabi Saudis & their friends the MB on one side, and Assad’s support from Shia radical fundamentalist Islamist theocrats in Iran on the other side.
Morsi is totally aware that Assad has been totally aware that (a) the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood are as close as two peas in a pod, (b) the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood is among the core of the leaders of the externally engineered, externally funded, externally supported “Syrian opposition” movement (over a decade old as OUR “regime change” project).
What the western public has been unaware of is we are making the same kind of mistake in Syria that we made in Afghanistan in 1979-1989 - making alliances of convenience with the wrong people, and helping to build up forces that will be our “allies” not one minute longer than it takes for THEM to obtain THEIR goals - not ours.
Actually it is Iran and Russia. China is stoking the fire so the US is dumb enough to put their foot in just like Iraq was a Chinese strategic trap. Easy to get in, but nation building is a bitch. Each time we step in, more money is drained from our deficit treasury, US public will gets drained, and our military is worn out with broken equipment and soldier suicides from the deployments. After it is all over with, the Chinese will move in and get lucrative contracts for rebuilding infrastructure and oil/gas fields. I say keep out, let Assad win and then let him contend with Turkey, Eqypt, Saudis, Gulf emirates and his majority Sunnis population. Sunnis Arabs are not going to sit by and let herectic Shiites kill Sunni Syrians. This is the great Sunni vs Shiite Islamic civil war and it is wise for the US to keep out.