@ 10Watt
Partition worked well for the Austro Hungarian Empire, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. Where the differences between groups of people in different parts of a state are great it is the ultimate solution.
Partition would defuse the conflict, making the states more likely to be secular (as I put in my last post) so that the minorities would be OK.
Syria is (all very -ish and a simplification) :
74% Sunni (10% Kurds)
13% Shia (11% Alawites)
10% Christian
3% Druze
They tend to live in segregated communities/enclaves/neighbourhoods/ghettoes. The level of integration is low. Which is part of what makes partition so feasible. It also explains why the front lines in the conflict are so static. It also explains the Ghouta sarin attack. Ghouta being a Sunni enclave in Damascus.