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Tangled web of alliances emerges as Middle East divides into blocs

The Middle East is divided into three blocs, but all have a common enemy in the Islamic State.
A fan of Egypt's Zamalek lights a flare during their African Champions League (CAF) soccer match against Tunisia's Club Africain at Cairo Stadium April 2, 2011. Hundreds of Zamalek supporters invaded the pitch during their team's African Champions League clash with Tunisia's Club Africain on Saturday, causing the game to be abandoned.REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh  (EGYPT - Tags: SPORT SOCCER CIVIL UNREST) - RTR2KQX4
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The US invasion of Iraq in 2003 was vital for the restructuring of alliances in the Middle East. That is when the foundations for what were then the two main blocs in the region were laid, leading the way toward a new order that divided the region between pro-US and anti-US countries.

The fall of Saddam Hussein, the heightened and continuous Israeli-Palestinian crisis, Hezbollah’s rise in Lebanon amid the liberation of south Lebanon and the Syrian-Iranian alliance were all aspects forming the landscape of the resistance and resilience bloc; it raised anti-US mottos and gained grassroots popularity for expressing stances that tickled the dreams of a public that had suffered waves of disappointments during the past half a century. This bloc brought together Islamists, nationalists, leftists and anarchists; it connected Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and the Palestinian resistance factions (for example, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine).

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