INTRODUCTION TO THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
This part of the world is in a major state of flux. From the stirrings of fundamental Muslims in Morocco, where a new King is now in power, past the dictatorship of Muammar Khadafi in Libya, the ensuing political difficulties of Mubarak's heretofore moderate Egypt, past the oil-rich Saudi peninsula, to the continuing armed conflict in Israel, the threat of warfare from Saddam Hussein, along a more moderate Iran under President Khatami, a peaceful Lebanon, a restless Syria, and Turkey, and the newly emerging former soviet republics gathered along and beyond the Caspian Sea, there is no single consensus of the future of this region.
The major problems involve religion and economics, as described below. It is a region where ferment brews discontent, where America is keeping a watchful eye on the potential for all-out religious holy wars against Westerners and moderate, conservative Muslims. From the arid Sahara's outposts in Northern Africa to the ethnic cleansing of Kurds and other religious sects throughout the Middle East, this region of the world, perhaps more than any other area in the modern world, keeps lights burning in foreign offices of every Western nation. In a brief overview of this vast, populated region, there is fear that an explosion in any of several tinderboxes could happen any time.
Until one reaches Turkey, this is a geographical area of tropical proportions. While Morocco and Algeria have used fertile ground near the Mediterranean for agriculture, and the Nile Delta in Egypt is fertile, it is the tropical climate that creates deserts, and not enough water sources. With the exception of some mountains in the Sahara, the Atlas Mountains, reaching a height of 11,000 feet in Morocco, and some lower mountains in Lebanon, along the Syrian border, the land is mostly flat and, of course, arid. It is mostly in the Arabian peninsula that t...