States contiguous to Iraq

So today US Defence Secretary Robert M Gates was in Egypt. While in Egypt Mr.Gates addressed a few issues while speaking before the American Chamber of Commerce in Cairo. One major issue of discussion is an obvious one…hmmm what’s been going on in the Middle East concerning Americans for a little while now…yea that’s right… the building of another Pizza Hut in the UAE…no, that’s not right. The issue at hand was obviously that of Iraq. Mr. Gates made it clear that the assistance and backing of Egypt is required if Iraq is to be kept from divulging into further chaos

The issue at hand is not just Iraq divulging into further chaos, but the possibility that the entire region could be destabilized based on the notion of sectarian differences coupled with a historical desire of the ruling Islamist regime of Iran to export revolution and strengthen Shia Muslims throughout the region. It is really a scary thought if you think about it. For decades Saudi Arabia has been Iran’s ideological enemy as well as Sectarian opposition. Historically Saudi has been the regional power broker, a position Iran has been seeking for quite some time.

In many states throughout the Gulf, Qatar and Bahrain to name a few, have very similar social structures to that of Iraq, minus the Kurdish population. Within many gulf states there are Shia populations of significant size that are not represented as they are led by governments installed during the British Mandate Era that are Sunni dominant. This creates a powder keg in the region as far as sectarian differences go.

If the states contiguous to Iraq (Syria, Iran), and neighboring states to Iraq are not allowed to play a significant role in the reconstruction there could very well be massive chaos across the region and the Iraq issue will not be resolved