The Big Pharaoh, the preeminent Egyptian blogger, tweeted a chart that attempts to map the relations between different groups in the Middle East.
As you can see, it is a convoluted mess. The red lines show who hates whom, the blue lines show who supports whom, and the green lines show who has no clue about a group.
There are a few issues with the chart, some of which were pointed out by readers of the Washington Post.
- Israel may technically be at war with Syria but "does not feel it can trust the Sunni-dominated rebel forces any more than it can the current regime." So the Hates/Supports arrows for Israel are a bit of a oversimplification.
- There should be a Hates arrows going from Israel to Iran, and Iran Lebanese proxy Hezbollah should be on the chart.
- There are no Hate arrows going toward the U.S., which is probably an oversight.
- The al-Qaeda-linked faction of the Syrian rebels also hates the U.S., Lebanon Shias, Iran, Turkey, and others.
- It's tricky to say that al-Qaeda hates Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states since those countries, especially Qatar and Kuwait, have been directly and indirectly arming radical groups.
- There should be several more arrows to reciprocate Hates.
Taking those qualifications (and any unmentioned innaccuracies) into account simply accentuates how complicated the Middle East has become.