May
we place these important concerns before you for you prayer participation?
1 For the United Arab Emirates
believers to go forward together, especially the ministry leaders, after the
recent national prayer initiative there in a united prayer and mission movement
that God will use to bless that nation and the world like a new Antioch.
2 For the ministry leaders of Israel-
Messianic Jews, Israeli Arabs and Palestinians- to come together in spite of
their divisions about the land and government and form an ongoing united prayer
movement for the healing of their land and even the end of the Arab-Israeli
conflict. With God all things are possible! For us in the IPC to know what our
part should be to aid in this process.
3 For the current ceasefire to
continue, humanitarian shipments to flow in where needed, and for an end of the
war in Syria that has caused the deaths of up to 400,000 and made millions
homeless refugees. Pray for the crucial March 9 meeting to move the peace
process forward. Also, that Syrians, many of whom are now very responsive to
the Gospel, will hear it and come to Christ.
4 Turkey national and regional prayer
initiative, May 18-21. For the organization, program development team, and
funds still needed for several hundred Turks, Koreans and other nationalities
that are coming together to pray for this most unreached land and the rest of
the Middle East.
Thanks so much for joining us in prayer for these
important matters.
What Is The Middle East And What Countries Are Part Of It?
The Middle East is a geographical and cultural region located primarily in western Asia,
but also in parts of northern Africa and southeastern Europe. The western
border of the Middle East is defined by the Mediterranean Sea, where Israel, Lebanon, and
Syria rest opposite from Greece and Italy in
Europe. Egypt in Africa also borders the Mediterranean and is
sometimes considered as part of the Middle East, while Turkey and Cyprus literally
connect Europe to Asia and oscillate between being called European and Middle
Eastern.
Armenia, Azerbaijan,
and Georgia, all located just northeast of Turkey, are at times
associated with the Middle East, Europe, Asia, or as their own separate region.
South of the Mediterranean Sea, the Red and Arabian Seas surround the southern
part of the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, Yemen,
and Oman border these waters, with Iraq and Jordan connecting
them to the western part of the region. At the center of the Middle East rests
the Persian Gulf, cutting into the region and giving it its hook-like shape.
Countries along the Persian Gulf include the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait,
and Iran.
The
eastern and northern borders of the Middle East are somewhat difficult to
define. Both Afghanistan and Pakistanborder
Iran to the east, but Pakistan’s shared history with India causes
it to sometimes be seen as part of South Asia instead of the Middle East. Some
of the countries bordering Iran and Afghanistan’s north, such as Turkmenistan, Tajikistan,
and Uzbekistan, are sometimes included within the northern borders
of the Middle East, but are other times seen as their own Central Asian region
alongside Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
There are
also several unrecognized or partially recognized states within the Middle
East. Palestine, which is made up of the Gaza Strip and West Bank regions in
and around Israel, declared its independence in 1988 and is currently
recognized as independent by 134 countries, though it is not an official member
of the United Nations and is not considered to be its own countries by every
G-8 nation except Russia.
Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and South Ossetia are all located within the
Caucasus region around Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Russia and all
declared their independence during the 1990s, with limited recognition
internationally. Northern Cyprus declared its independence in 1983 but is only
recognized as a sovereign state within the UN by Turkey, with every other
member considering it as simply part of Cyprus. Some borders within the Middle
East are similarly difficult to define as a result of territorial disputes
between countries within the region. Some examples include the island of Abu
Musa in the Persian Gulf, which is administered by Iran by claimed by the
United Arab Emirates, the Golan Heights plateau, which was part of Syria until
it was occupied and annexed by Israel during the Six-Day War, and the region of
Kurdistan, which is officially a part of northern Iraq but also has an
autonomous status.
I was in my room in the Baghdad Hotel
on al-Sadoun street last Sunday evening, writing about the chances for
stability in Iraq taking
hold, when the walls and floor began to shake. They jerked sideways and up and
down several times as if my room was the cabin of boat in a rough sea.
My first confused thought was – this
being Baghdad – that there must have been some huge bomb explosion, which would
explain the rocking motion of everything around me. But almost
simultaneously, I realised that I had not heard the sound of an explosion, so a
better explanation was that there was an earthquake, though I had never thought
of Baghdad as being in an earthquake zone.
The jerking movements of the walls
and floor of my room were so spectacular that I wondered if the building was
going to collapse. I looked under the desk where I was sitting, but the space
was too small for me to crouch in. I got down on my hands and knees and started
to crawl towards the bathroom which is meant to be the safest place in the
event of a bomb explosion, and I supposed the same must be true of earthquakes.
I had got about half way there when
the shaking stopped. The lights were still on which seemed a good sign. I got
back on a stool and googled “Baghdad earthquake” on my laptop and read a series
of alarmed tweets confirming that was indeed what had just happened.
It was a 7.3 magnitude quake centred
19 miles from Halabja, a small city in Iraqi Kurdistan 150 miles north-east of
Baghdad and close to the Iranian border. Nine people had been killed in Iraq,
but the catastrophic damage was in Iran where 530 people had died.
In earlier times, an
earthquake like this would be taken as an omen: a warning of bad times to
come. Shakespeare is full of such grim portents which commonly precede
assassinations and defeats in battle. This would be a pity in the case of
present day Iraq because, for the first time since Saddam Hussein started his
war with Iran in 1980, the prospects look positive.
The central
government is stronger than before, defeating Isis in the nine-month long siege
of Mosul and ending the move towards secession of Iraqi Kurdistan by peacefully
reoccupying Kirkuk and other disputed territories.
Substantial successes these
certainly are, but what has really changed the political landscape of Iraq is
that there is no longer a community, party or faction fighting the central
government with financial and military aid from foreign backers. For once, Iraq
has good relations with all the neighbouring states.
The earthquake
may not herald more domestically-generated violence in Iraq, but in the real
world it is a useful reminder that the country, along with the rest of the
Middle East, is vulnerable to unexpected and unpredictable events. Of course,
these are always a possibility anywhere, but never more than at present because
of the strange character change of two traditionally conservative powers in the
region: the US and Saudi Arabia. Previously committed to preserving the
political status quo, both have become mercurial and prone to saw off the
branch on which they are sitting.
Shortly before
the earthquake in Baghdad, I was making the above point about Iraq stabilising
to a European diplomat. He said this might be true, but that real danger to
peace “comes from a combination of three people: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed
bin Salman, Trump’s son-in-law and Middle East envoy Jared Kushner, and
Bibi Netanyahu in Israel.”
Probably, the
Saudis and the Americans exaggerate the willingness of Netanyahu and Israel to
go to war. Netanyahu has always been strong on bellicose rhetoric, but cautious
about real military conflict (except in Gaza, which was more massacre than
war).
Israel’s
military strength tends to be exaggerated and its army has not won a war
outright since 1973. Previous engagements with Hezbollah have gone badly.
Israeli generals know that the threat of military action can be more effective
than its use in maximising Israeli political influence, but that actually going
to war means losing control of the situation. They will know the saying of the
19th century German chief of
staff, Helmuth Von Moltke, that “no plan survives contact with the enemy”.
But even if
the Israelis do not intend to fight Hezbollah or Iran, this does not mean that
they would not like somebody else to do so for them. Iraqi Prime Minister
Haider al-Abadi told me in an interview earlier this month that his greatest
fear was a US-Iranian confrontation fought out in Iraq. This could happen
directly or through proxies, but in either case would end the present fragile
peace.
On the
optimistic side, US policy in Iraq and Syria is largely run by the Pentagon and
not the White House, and has not changed much since President Obama’s days. It
has been successful in its aim of destroying Isis and the self-declared
caliphate.
The wars in Iraq
and Syria already have their winners and losers: President Bashar al-Assad
stays in power in Damascus, as does a Shia-dominated government in
Baghdad. An Iranian-backed substantially Shia axis in four countries – Iran,
Iraq, Syria and Lebanon – stretches from the Afghan border to the
Mediterranean. This is the outcome of the wars since 2011, which is not
going to be reversed except by a US land invasion – as happened in Iraq in
2003.
The great danger in the
Middle East today is that Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman and Jared Kushner
appear to have a skewed and unrealistic understanding of the world around them.
Inspector Clouseau seems to have a greater influence on Saudi policy than
Machiavelli, going by the antics surrounding the forced resignation of Saad
Hariri as Prime Minister of Lebanon. This sort of thing is not going to
frighten the Iranians or Hezbollah.
The signs are
that Iran has decided to go a long way to avoid confrontation with the US. In
Iraq, it is reported that it will support the re-election of Abadi as prime
minister which is also what the US wants. Iran knows that it has come out on
the winning side in Iraq and Syria and does not need to flaunt its success. It
may also believe that the Crown Prince is using anti-Iranian nationalist
rhetoric to secure his own power and does not intend to do much about it.
Nobody has much
to gain from another war in the Middle East, but wars are usually started by
those who miscalculate their own strengths and interests. Both the US and Saudi
Arabia have become “wild cards” in the regional pack. The sort of Neo-con and
right-wing think tankers, who in 2003 were saying that a war with Iraq
would be a doddle, are back in business in Washington, pushing for war with
Iran – and are stronger than ever.
The wars in the
Middle East should be ending, but they could just be entering a new phase.
Leaders in the US and Saudi Arabia may not want a new war, but they might just
blunder into one.
Related articles
What happened?
Witnesses
said dozens of gunmen arrived in off-road vehicles and bombed the packed mosque
before opening fire on worshippers as they tried to flee.
The
assailants are reported to have set parked vehicles on fire in the vicinity to
block off access to the mosque.
Pictures
from the scene show rows of bloodied victims inside the mosque. At least 100
people were wounded, reports say, overwhelming hospitals.
"They
were shooting at people as they left the mosque," a local resident who had
relatives there told Reuters news agency. "They were shooting at the
ambulances too."…
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