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Source: http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Assads-political-alchemy-486361
Why Did Assad Use Nerve Gas?
(Jerusalem Post) Amotz Asa-El - Assad's gas attacks targeted the town of Khan Sheikhoun, located just east of the Nusayriyah Mountains, the Alawite stronghold east of Syria's Mediterranean coast. The town is also on the M5 highway, Syria's most important artery, which runs from the Jordanian border through Damascus to Aleppo. The gas attack and the hospital bombing that followed are part of an ethnic-cleansing effort designed to chase Sunni populations out and replace them with Shi'ite Arabs from Iraq. Tehran wants to extend its reach to the Mediterranean by cultivating a belt of predominantly Shi'ite communities checkered by an assortment of subservient non-Sunni minorities. Prime Minister Netanyahu told President Putin during their meeting in Moscow last month that the Iranians are out to build their own seaport in Syria. The Iranian march to the Mediterranean provokes the Arab world, Russia and Turkey all at once. The Russians will not want the ayatollahs' vessels parking alongside theirs. Backing Assad's violence is one thing. Accommodating Tehran's imperial intrusion is an entirely different thing. Moreover, the Sunni Arabs along with the Sunni Turks understand what Iran is up to.