mr. bannerman a chance. in your earlier comments the parliamentary elections in egypt, on the other hand, our other guest says there's so much repression there. in syria what happened to the arab spring there? >> syria is a tragedy beyond method but the forces are identity are thil there. the question we ask, why is assad still this and who supports him among the syrian people. >> and what is the answer? >> the answer is because of this influence identity or this reassertion of this islamic identity people who weren't of that group felt more threatened by the islamacysts, they are still better than the threat of islam. by those people i mean you're talking about the minorities, the christians the jews, the a alloites, if you're an arab nationalist or syrian nationalist, assad must be as bad as he seems to be. >> are you saying that the country should take its course? >> i'm saying the united states is interested in syria. we don't control the option and we don't control the government. what i'm saying is it'

. >> let me ask you to pause and give mr bannerman a chance to reference this. you referenced parliamentary elections in egypt. on the other hand we have the guests saying there's so much repress. let's talk about syria. what happened with the arab spring in? >> well, syria is a tragedy beyond belief for all of us that watched it. what was amazing in syria is the forces of identity are still there. the question we never here arrived in the west is why is bashar al-assad still there, and who still supports him among the syrian people. why is this man still there much. >> what is the answer? >> because of this new identity or this reassociation of the islamic identity, people who weren't of that group felt more threatened by the islama sifts than they do by the government of bashar al-assad. they may dislike bashar al-assad, they recognise a tire able to. they are too dominant. they are better than the threat of islam. by those people you are talking about the minorities, the christians, the drews, the alawites. if you are a sebbing larist. do you want the islama