Epstein Secrets

making than with the blurring 4 the lines drawn in Arab sands decades ago. On the map, Tripoli, on the Med=terranean Sea, lies within the borders of Lebanon and is the country's s=cond-largest city. But Tripoli, staunchly Sunni, with an Alawite minority, has always been within the orbit of the S=rian cit

ing between Syria's Alawite regime and the Sunni=led rebellion would remain within the country's borders. Syria is at once the pivot and a mirror of the Fertile Crescent, =nd its sectarian and ethnic fissures reproduce themselves in neighboring A=ab states. As an oddly passive President Obama ponders what he might d

Like Son Thomas L. Friedman Articles. The Council for Foreign Relations The UN's Mideast Struggles Interview: William H. Luers Article 6. NOW Lebanon EFTA_R1_00229072 EFTA01842271 Hamas of contradictions Hussein Ibish Article 7. NYT Next Up: Turkey vs. Iran Soner Cagaptay Arm:le I. NYT

am Hussein, are now making amends. They are also closely aligning with Turkey to balance Iranian influence inside Iraq. Turkish-Iranian rivalry in the Fertile Crescent has opened up a can of worms: Iranian leaders attack Turkey's "secular Islam" and threaten to "strike Turkey" should Ankara act on its commitment

eylaz, an Iranian analyst cited by the Journal, remarked, "Iran's geopolitical policies have failed. We have lost Hamas, overstretched Hezbollah in Lebanon, and now have al Qaeda spilling from Syria to Iraq." Iran benefits most, so the doves appear to reason, when the Sunnis are not being driven into

remarkable consolidation of Sunni sentiment against the Shi'a as Iran and its allies make gains. The disparate Sunni terrorist and tribal groups in the Fertile Crescent have united, for now, under the banner of ISIS, which shook the region and the world by routing Iraq's army and occupying much of the country. Mea