[Old Teufel Hunden]

"I get the feeling that Obama is trying to clear the deck for Iran to dominate the Middle East region."

Baathist is the political party that Assad belongs to but he is an Alawite in regards to religion. The Alawites are twelvers and are closely aligned with Shias which is what the Persian/Iranians are. In other words, Assad is an ally of Syria so Iran does not want to see Assad fall.

[AU72]

Iran does not want to see Assad fall

That's why they sent their puppet Hezzbollah into Syria to support Assad.