Saudi authorities detained a number of protesters Friday in the restive eastern Shiite region after they set tires ablaze during an overnight rally, the kingdom’s official news agency reported.
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The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has sent 20,000 food parcels costing a total of $1 million to be distributed among needy families in Pakistan’s northwest tribal region. The food will be distributed …
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“…“Syria has become a convenient battlefield for everyone, a place to divide the Arab world, said Farid Khazan, a Lebanese lawmaker and a professor of political science at American University of Beirut. “You won’t be able to reshape that country without messing up the entire region.”Tensions between Sunnis and Shiites in Syria have already destabilized communities in northern Lebanon and Iraq, according to U.S. and Mideast strategists. In Jordan, officials fear that the rise of fundamentalist Sunni groups in Syria, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood, could threaten King Abdullah’s monarchy……
The conflict has huge ramifications for neighboring countries. As violence rises, Syrians are fleeing in ever-larger numbers. Tens of thousands of Syrians have fled to Lebanon since Thursday, while thousands more are pouring into Iraq by land and by air, and Jordan says that more than 100,000 Syrians are now within its borders.
Lebanon has already had several sectarian clashes between supporters and opponents of Syria’s regime. Lebanon also is a stage for regional rivalries to play out between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which back feuding Lebanese political factions.
“I don’t think Lebanon has ever been through a situation this sensitive and complicated as right now. The divisions are very deep,” a senior Hezbollah official said. …”
In a show of force, Syria began large-scale military exercises Sunday to simulate defending the country against outside "aggression." Damascus' staunch ally Iran warned of a "catastrophe" in the region if no political solution to the 16-month-old Syrian conflict is found.
[The following post is about a conference held five years ago, but the papers from the conference have been published in a new volume edited by the late Michael E. Bonine, Abbas Amanat and Michael Ezekiel Gaspar entitled Is There a Middle East?. This is a book well worth reading and owing.]
Is there a Middle East? At first glance we either have a very silly question or an occasion for an academic conference. In this case it was the latter at Yale University this past weekend. The Council for Middle East Studies of the Yale Center for International and Area Studies hosted a dozen scholars from various disciplines. Papers were given on the history of the term “Middle East,” its geographical borders in maps and mental templates, how the region implied has been imagined, colonially appropriated and the continuing relevance of the region in a world hooked on oil and stymied by regional terrorism.
NATO said it will hold an emergency meeting after Ankara on Sunday accused Syria of downing a Turkish jet in international airspace, raising fears that tensions could soar in the tinderbox region.
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