The first such conflict, centred on Syria, escalated into a potential global conflict with the direct participation of the Russian federation in the war and a political settlement proposal that calls for stationing Russian forces in Syria In addition, to its existing naval base in Tartous, tantamount to Russian occupation of the beleaguered country. Iran has also been accused of fomenting unrest in the Gulf emirates of Bahrain, Kuwait and eastern Saudi Arabia. This claim took credence from the fact that the ill-advised and destructive USA invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003 ended up with Iran becoming the undisputed force in Iraqi politics as well as the support of Iran for the embattled Syrian despot Assad and the Lebanese Shiite anti –Israeli Hizbollah, also actively involved in supporting the Assad regime. On the Arab level, ideological cover took the repugnant sectarian form of curbing Shiite expansion claimed to be masterminded by Iran in Arab countries. The most devastating consequence of these region–wide conflicts has been the creation of the barbaric entity ISIS Ideological cover for the western involvement was provided by a new wave of the war on 'Islamic' terrorism. The West, led by the USA has been a party to these wars and their potential expansion, if only by the sale of arms to whoever could pay for them, France has become a close competitor, not hiding new imperialist ambitions in the MENA region. The wars have been waged essentially by the Gulf oil-rich monarchies, in illicit consort with major western powers, as a counterrevolution against the ALT popular uprisings in a vain attempt to preserve their authoritarian rule style of governance throughout the region. As to be expected, the burden of war was borne disproportionately by children, women and the aged.

The refugee and displaced persons population in the Arab region became the largest relative to all the world regions, far in excess of its share of the world's population. The people of the countries involved suffered the horrible consequences of war,: human casualties, refugees and displaced persons in the millions.

The Regional landscape: a region ravaged by war and the aftermath of despotic governance and climate change the Gulf from plenty to poverty Since the advent of the ALT 1 nearly five years ago, the Arab region has been plagued by a set of localised conflicts that flared up into full scale wars in Syria, Yemen and Libya.

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