A BIT OF W'S UNFINISHED BUSINESS:

Without Saudi support, President Bashar al-Assad's brutal dictatorship in Syria looks doomed (Con Coughlin, 11 Aug 2011, The Telegraph)

In recent years, the Saudis have sought to improve relations with the Muslim Brotherhood, which represents many Syrian Sunnis, and Riyadh's decision to cut relations with Damascus reflects the royal family's revulsion at Assad's treatment of their co-religionists.

Certainly, the Saudis are not the only people who think the region's prospects would be greatly improved if Assad were driven from power. For a start, a Sunni Muslim government in Damascus would be unlikely to provide the same level of unstinting support for Hizbollah, the Iranian-backed militia that controls large swaths of neighbouring Lebanon.

Syria's long-standing alliance with Iran has been driven to a large extent by the fact that Tehran's Shia Muslim ayatollahs have been prepared to accept the legitimacy of Assad's Alawite cult, whereas most Sunnis regard the Alawites as heretics. The overthrow of the Alawites would remove the raison d'etre of Syria's alliance with Iran.

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