dr. wally ferris. doctor, good to have you join us today.riefings to congress and the european parliament last year and this year, you projected there would be regional counterattacks if the u.s. were to strike the assad regime. so why would the iranian regime in the first place be risking a confrontation with the united states and the west if this strike is directed against syria? >> i actually insisted on the fact that it is a strategic decision made in tehran. this is a result, number one, of the strategic alliance between the syrian regime and iranian regime. we have nato. they have a series of treaties between themselves. defense treaties that include hezbollah. if one is attacked, all others will counterattack. that is something to be taken seriously into account. the most important reason is that the iranian regime will lose everything regionally if they lose syria. if we look at the map, the bridge between the iranian regime through iraq and syria and to hezbollah goes through damascus, goes through the syrian regime if it goes down