US agitates Syria collapse with no clear goal but ruination of Assad Regime – Nation in shables acceptable endpoint

No clear successor to Assad’s ‘coup-proof’ rule in Syria
27 February, 2012 – By Tabassum Zakaria – The Star

WASHINGTON: The Obama administration along with its Arab and European allies are trying to push Syria’s leader from power, but U.S. officials acknowledge they see no good candidates to replace him, either inside the government or from the nation’s fractured opposition.

That is due in no small part, the officials and experts on Syria said, to President Bashar Assad’s determination to “coup proof” his rule to ensure no challenge emerged from within.

With the Assad family facing the greatest challenge to its 41-year rule, Syrian security forces killing thousands of protesters and bystanders, and U.S. officials predicting the government will eventually fall, the question of who rules Syria has taken on added urgency.

But there is, in short, no heir apparent. And it is unclear if one will emerge anytime soon.

“The ruling establishment there is so entrenched and it is so self-interested, even if, and this is purely speculative, even if they overthrew Assad, it’s not clear that we would like his successor much more,” said a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “There is no heir apparent.”

Similarly, among the rebels, “there is no opposition figure who has come out and become the face of Syrian resistance,” the official said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday tried to exacerbate any divisions within Syria’s elite, especially its security forces. “Their refusal to continue this slaughter will make them heroes in the eyes of not only Syrians but people of conscience everywhere,” Clinton said.

Yet privately, officials say Assad, his close family and their inner circle will try to hang on to power as long as possible.

The Assads and many other power-brokers in Damascus are from the minority Alawite sect that makes up just 12 percent of the Syrian population. Their fortunes are tied to the president’s.

There is also family history. The Syrian leader’s late father, Hafez Assad, seized power as a result of a bloodless coup in 1970 and became the unquestioned ruler the following year.

“The Assads have been planning for this for 40 years, for a Sunni uprising against them. And that’s why they’ve poured family members and sectarian members into the top upper ranks. It’s all about loyalty to coup-proof this regime,” said Joshua Landis, a professor at the University of Oklahoma who writes a newsletter on Syrian politics.

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