BEIRUT: Bsharri MP Elie Keyrouz said Sunday that the downfall of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime is “almost certain,” the National News Agency reported.

Keyrouz also said that Assad’s regime is “convenient” for Israel as it guards the Syrian-Israeli border in the Golan Heights, and that Israel is the main backer of the Baath regime in Syria.

“The Syrian regime’s downfall has become a demand not only for the Syrian opposition but also for international and regional political circles, and its downfall has become almost certain,” Keyrouz said in a radio interview.

“Syrian tutelage over Lebanon is what drove Christians to become alienated from the state, excluded politically and marginalized electorally,” he added.