Summary
At the very least there are three competing agendas, each with their own extremists and moderates and including governments, sub-state and transnational actors and various ideological platforms: * The traditional, pragmatic and essentially materialist alliance of the United States and Sunni Arab governments; * An Arab Quartet' of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, galvanised by antipathy to Israel on the 'Arab street' and fear of Iranian regional domination; * A revisionist camp, led by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and encompassing the Shi'a movement of Hizbollah in Lebanon, some, but not all the Shi'a parties that have emerged in Iraq, and potentially, but not irrevocably, the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas. What Ahmadinejad's Iranian detractors hope, however, is that his incapacity to deliver on all his promises for economic development, job creation and poverty alleviation will spell his political demise at the next presidential elections - still two years away - if not before.
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Turning to Tehran
IRAQ IS THE COCKPIT OF THE BATTLE FOR HEARTS AND minds across the whole Middle East. British Prime Minister Tony Blair has charaterised this as a confrontation between extremists and moderates, but that is to oversimplify and obscure. At the very least there are three competing agendas, each with their own extremists and moderates and including governments, sub-state and transnational actors and various ideological platforms:
* The traditional, pragmatic and essentially mater...See the full content of this document
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