Analysis: The Middle East is gone as we know it

The Middle East has drastically changed in the past few years and 2014 alone has etched these changes even deeper into the fabric of the region. The effects of the 2011 Arab uprisings linger on as toppled dictators and crumbling civil-military regimes leave behind an expansive political void. Borders are blurred, non-state actors are on the rise and regional powers are changing and shifting their tactics.

Three Arab capitals have today ended up in the hands of Iran and belong to the Islamic Iranian revolution.

Iranian MP Ali Zakani on Damascus, Baghdad and Beirut

A major shift in Middle East politics can be seen among its regional powers, namely with the emerging new leverage of Iran and changes in Turkey’s policies. In the background, the past year has accelerated the decline of the modern nation state in the Middle East. Decline in legitimacy still persists where states were formed in a controversial process and imposed on the masses, such as Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Israel. The most radical reaction to the turmoil in the region was the rise of the Islamic State, which has redrawn the map of the Middle East with huge chunks of Syria and Iraq and threatening other neighbouring states.

Syria and Iraq will simply never be, even remotely, the same.

Mustafa Salama, Al Jazeera political analyst

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