In the first meeting of its kind by Alawites who support the revolt, delegates distanced themselves from Assad's crackdown against an uprising in which 70,000 people have been killed. "We call on our brothers in the Syrian army, specifically members of our sect, not to take up arms against their people and to refuse to join the army," the delegates said in a statement after two days of meeting in the Egyptian capital. Alawite domination of the officer army corp is one of the pillars of Assad's control."The Syrian regime is not an Alawite sectarian regime ... the Alawite sect...
