The End of an Era: The New Middle East
The Middle East was a complicated and turbulent location. Ever since the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the division fo the region by the Entente, the Middle East saw growing strife and complications as a result of the ineptitude of the imperial system that gave birth to the nations of artificial boundaries and while the current situation is not as optimal as it could be, people are trying to head toward a better tomorrow over there and movng on to better things. As such, the coalition that working over to try and maintain peace in the Middle East were working to finally put an end to this. For over a decade, the various antagonistic and belligerent forces and influences of the Middle East had been brought to heel or fallen. Al-Queda was torn apart after 9/11 and soon followed by the Taliban. Iran and the Americans made a peace deal thanks to reformists on both sides which has to an end of hostilities and a growing sense of respect and friendship. The turmoil between Israel and Palestine gave way to growing respect and friendship; it has nearly been a decade since the formation of the Palestinian state and a new generation is being hopeful. Iraq and Syria fell apart after the former tried to exploit the latter's civil war during the Arab Spring. The Spring itself saw demands for reform and many were brought to pass while others may not. And now, the remnants of the antagonist forces from the Baathists have clashed with the extremists guarding over in the heart of Arabia itself, with both sides tearing each other apart. The Coalition ultimately decided to step in to bring stability, lest fears of refugees overwhelming other nations came along with the fortutitous opportunity for someone on the throne who is more than willing, wanting and able to Install reforms for the new Arab state to become a constitutional monarchy. After weeks of fighting, the Baathists were finally defeated, with the remnants surrendering over and the leaders being executed. The new State of Arabia was formed with the new King putting through plenty of reforms and various soldiers of the Coalition working as an additional peacekeeping force and rooting our radical reactionaires. While interim officials such as a Prime Minister and other officials were put in by him or were able to have some form of elections, the system was being planned for formal elections by the next year or so while a Supreme Court was established and staffed with center-leftists. Qatif meanwhile would become an Islamic Republic with Dammam as its capital. The Shia majority population embraced their freedom with support from Iran coming in. Some of the Sunni remained behind because of the promise of religious freedom while others headed to some of the newer nations or abroad. While the nation did depend plenty on Iran, there were signs and promises to try and stand on their own feet, to where they are beginning to try and mimic their neighbors, such as Qatar's Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN
). The hope as to promote long-standing peace within the region, for everyone, Muslim or otherwise.
View attachment 545765
New State of Arabia flag, inspired by Nejd flage and Arab revolt flag
View attachment 545764
New flag of Qatif, based on Arab revolt flag; takbir written 6 times in the Kufic script in white on the red and black sides. Qatif is spelled out in green Kufic script.
Meanwhile, the big news was on the a potential solution for the "Jerusalem situation." Years of peace between Israel and Palestine reinforced by camarderie during Iraqi-Syrian War intervention and the Arabian Civil War brought plenty of new hope and opportunity. The Kadima party would lose seats to the Labor Party due to partial blame shifting to them in regards to the economic troubles though they still remain prominent and have taken further seats away from the Likud Party, leaving them politically impotent. Only a year or so later, Palestine's Palestinian Democratic Union party being elected soon after meant that the two relatively leftiat paerties began working together to try and address the "Jerusalem situation". The city was important to both nations and there should be attempts to keep both sides from overreaching, especially since more people were becoming aware that differing political parties may try to disrupt the peace with inflammatory rhetoric (to where jokes on how religious war has been the petty bickering of different religious conservatives fighting have grown.) The
Jerusalem Solution as it would come to be known as was inspired by the situation with the Vatican City. However, rather than be dependent on one nation, it would be dependent on both nations and become a city-state focused mainly for religious purposes and some degree of tourism for the city to maintain itself. Now the various paperwork, logistics and agreements remained, but the outline was the most promising and lauded by various people across the board, bringing hope in otherwise troublesome times. The hope was to try and have the city fully autonomous by 2020 at latest (barring emergancy measures) and the Vatican has even offered assistance in the form of counsel and some examples of what could be to help. Overall, the signs lookd the Middle East would be calming down; Iran was becoming the new hegemon and looking to undo the corruption of Wahhabism and Salafism spread throughout the world and mending ties with the United States and the west in general.
View attachment 545763
The new Middle East (gold dot is Jerusalem City)