"What this means now is that the Tehran regime is neither surprised nor intimidated by the scale of the Israeli response to the provocations in Gaza and Lebanon. Tehran expects that the missiles they have deployed in Syria and Lebanon, once they walk them like a barrage onto Tel Aviv, will force the Israelis into bombing the launchers and depots in Syria. The Iranians expect that when Syria is attacked, the other Arab states, such as Shia- dominated Iraq or Bahrain or Shia-fraught Saudi Arabia, will bend to their will. (And the secular, non-Shia tyrannies such as Egypt and Pakistan, will heed the call of alliance from the Egyptian al-Zawahiri.) Tehran expects that America will not be able to remain out of the fighting once Israel is battered and isolated, once the United Nations Security Council is provoked by Iran's expected quitting of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, perhaps in August..."
Great post, thanks Ernest!
Why Sunni Arabs would ever go to war on behalf of Alawites is a very good question ~ can you explain this to us?