Damascus - Syria, On The Road To Damascus

Depending on your point of view Syria is either a rogue state run by an authoritarian regime, or a champion of the Arab cause. But what's not in dispute is that the war in neighboring Lebanon has drastically altered the balance of power in this region and radicalized opinion in Syria. One of Syria's leading Sunni clerics Sheikh Mohammed Habbash told reporter Mark Corcoran that his people are now calling for the creation of a Syrian Hezbollah-style militia to retake the Golan Heights - Syrian territory occupied by Israel since the 1967 war. "The government now may forbid any attack in Golan Heights but I can tell you honestly government and our leadership cannot stay forever in control of everyone," Sheikh Mohammed Habbash says. Everywhere in Damascus there are portraits of Hafaz and Bashar al Assad the father-son dynasty that's ruled this country with an iron fist for more than 35 years. But now their official portraits have been joined - even upstaged - by posters of a bearded Lebanese cleric: Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah, self proclaimed victor of a month long war that shattered the myth of Israel's invincibility. The yellow flags of Hezbollah fly everywhere. A victory for Nasrallah, it has been greeted as a victory for all Syria - which along with Iran provided him with arms, money and advisers. Now, former Presidential adviser turned regime critic Ayman Abdel Nour, fears the growing power of Islamic extremists who are attempting to exploit the mood. "I assure you something, now the biggest danger for the regime in the eyes of the top regime people, is radical Islam."

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