Epstein Secrets

Egypt has designated Hamas a terrorist group and is keeping Gaza isolated. Syria, embroiled in a civil war with outside backing, has accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of seeking to undermine the country. Saudi Arabia and Qatar are supporting different factions of the Syrian opposition. The Arab Gulf sta

the self-proclaimed champion of Palestinian rights, is also taking notice of the camps' destabilization and division. Hezbollah's Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah recently gave a speech on current events in the region, a speech that, at first blush, curiously focused on the primacy of resistance against Israe

heightened possibility of actual military conflict in the Gulf, where one-fifth of the world's oil supplies traverse the shipping lanes between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Growing hostility between the two countries could make it more difficult for the U.S. to exit smoothly from Iraq this year, as planned. And

ors to that point. But to the Saudis, not to mention Bahrain's ruling family, even the occasional appearance of posters of Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah amid crowds of Shiite protesters pumping their fists and chanting demands for regime change was too much. They saw how Iran's influence has grown in

adjust to that. We must be capable of reacting quickly to unexpected developments. SPIEGEL: Surely there are a few member states, most notably Saudi Arabia, which will hardly support such changes. Elaraby: I too have my doubts there. Nevertheless, we still have to try, and we have to take seriously the

nd then avoided defeat in a subsequent round of fighting in 2006. In a poll of Arab public opinion taken in 2008, the three most popular leaders were Hassan Nasrallah, Bashar al-Assad and Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, in that order. But this sense of inexorable ascendancy in which the Iran-led bloc liked to cloak itself has