Part 9/14:
Both regimes increasingly relied on sectarian divides to maintain control. In Syria, Alawites—an offshoot of Shia Islam—dominated the military and security forces, comprising around 80% of senior officers, despite being only 12% of the population. Similarly, Saddam’s Iraq was a Sunni-dominated state, with a small minority controlling key institutions, exacerbating sectarian tensions. This manipulation of ethnic and sectarian identities meant that the ideological promise of Arab unity was increasingly undermined by the reality of division and exclusion.