Sunday, 30 August 2015

Iran seeking to expel 200,000 Sunnis from Damascus — report

Syrian President Bashar Assad (center), shakes hands with a member of Iran's parliamentary committee on national interest and foreign policy, in Damascus, Syria, April 22, 2013. (photo credit: AP/SANA)

 "Iran is working with the Syrian regime to clear hundreds of thousands of Sunni Muslim residents from Damascus in an effort to alter the demographic makeup of the city, according to the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper.
 According to the report, the overwhelmingly Shiite Iran is helping the regime to raze homes in the relatively plush Mezzeh neighborhood of Damascus, pushing out the Sunni residents in an effort to cement local support for the regime.
 Hundreds of families living in the area were given just a few hours to evacuate their homes, the report said.
The report said that Iran and the Assad regime are seeking population transfers in order to strengthen the government’s control over key areas linking the Syrian capital with the Mediterranean coast, the heartland of the Alawite community, the Shiite sect to which President Bashar Assad belongs."

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