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That whole Middle East deal sure can be confusing. Thankfully, in this concise and clearly articulated letter to the editor published in the Financial Times, Mr KN Al-Sabah, of London, lays it all out in a way anyone can understand. In full, his letter, entitled "A Short Guide to the Middle East," read:
Helpful letter to the editor clears up confusion about the Middle East
A Short Guide to the Middle East
A couple of days ago, Egyptian blogger Big Pharaoh had a fantastic idea to graphically explain the Middle East:
I loved the idea but wasn't happy with the execution. I thought maybe I could make it easier to follow, streamlined and even add more detail. I admire good graphic design and it seemed like it was do-able.
Well, I don't think I succeeded in making it simpler.
Adding a few more vertices and nodes made it even more spectacularly complicated than before.
Maybe we can turn it into a board game.
My original intent was to add Copts, Kurds and (Lebanese) Druze to the chart, but things would have really gotten out of hand.
UPDATE: Some fixes; I put the wrong color for Turkey-Assad and added PA-Israel, some other stuff as people mention it. Continuously updating...
UPDATE 2: Yoel found a simplified guide, which Nevet translated:
Idiot's Guide to the Middle East
This morning I came across an article in the Financial Times that explains who supports who and who hates who in the Middle East. They asked that the story (text) not be copied and pasted so I am respecting that request. However, I thought this story might be conveyed as well or better in a graphical form so I produced the following graphic.
I don’t completely agree with every relationship as described by the article, but most, and this illustrates what a quagmire it is to get involved… Notice this does not even mention the various factions fighting Assad or the Palestinians and Israelis. Still it is quite a tangled mess...
A short guide to the Middle East
originally posted by: darkbake
a reply to: jude11
Is everyone sure that Saudi Arabia supports ISIS? I doubt it... ISIS is the black sheep. Other than that, I agree, the situation is about as complicated as the letter to the editor says, even more so, really.
originally posted by: Murgatroid
Concerning the comment mentioned above about turning it into a board game:
Available on Amazon for $13.59...
originally posted by: GargIndia
originally posted by: darkbake
a reply to: jude11
Is everyone sure that Saudi Arabia supports ISIS? I doubt it... ISIS is the black sheep. Other than that, I agree, the situation is about as complicated as the letter to the editor says, even more so, really.
Saudi Arabia has always supported fanatical Islam.
Saudi Arabia is a two faced monster. It hides its real activities.
You forget that all 9/11 hijackers were Saudi. How come there is such hatred in Saudi Arabia against USA??