Fearing stark future, Syrian Alawites meet in Cairo | Reuters

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

AMMAN | Sat Mar 23, 2013 8:24am EDT
 

(Reuters) - Followers of the religion of Bashar al-Assad who oppose the Syrian president met in Cairo on Saturday to support a democratic alternative to his rule, seeking to untangle his fate from their own.

In the first meeting of its kind by Alawites who support the revolt, delegates aimed to draft a declaration supporting a united Syria and to invite other opposition groups to cooperate on preventing sectarian bloodletting if Assad falls.

"We are inviting all of the opposition to confront the sectarian problem being ignited by the regime. The last card the regime can now play is civil war and the partition of Syria," said veteran opposition campaigner Bassam al-Youssef, an Alawite who spent more than a decade in jail under the iron rule of Assad's father, the late President Hafez al-Assad.

FULL ARTICLE: Fearing stark future, Syrian Alawites meet in Cairo | Reuters