Slitherine

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Following the fall of the Saddam Hussein Regime in early 2002 the situation in the Middle East has become highly unstable. The Islamic State (IS) managed to overthrow the Iraqi government in 2016 and then spread the insurgency into the neighboring countries of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Forced to act, in order to protect their interests and oil supply, the United States (US) invaded Iraq again in 2017 and also installed strong military presence in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Although the threat of IS was practically destroyed by these actions, the continued presence of US forces in the Middle East let tensions grow even further. The joint Israeli-US air offensive against Iranian nuclear facilities in late 2018 was the spark that ignited the fire. Many young Arabs, up until then foreign to insurgency, picked up weapons and joined a newly established democratic movement to depose the ruling regimes of the Middle East and oust American troops from their home countries. The second Arab spring had arrived, this time directed against the US.

After 6 months of guerrilla warfare between US troops and democratic insurgents, the US decided to withdraw its troops from the Middle East. The last convoys of troops were however not sent back to the United States but seemed to be relocating to Pakistan, where a CIA-backed junta ousted the radical Islamic leaders that had recently gained power. Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal was dissolved and the establishment of a strong US presence in Pakistan was a clear message to the new democratic Middle East governments that any interference in the oil supply would result in US intervention with airstrikes out of Pakistan.

Britain left the EU in early 2018 an action which led to another spark. In the Berlin European summit in late 2018 the now 33-member EU (plus Switzerland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Slavic Macedonia; minus Great Britain) declared its consolidation creating the European Confederation (ECON). Angela Merkel was elected first President of ECON with the leader of Greater Russia Vladimir Putin, still recovering from the mysterious assassination attempt in early 2018, attending the ceremony too.

In early 2019 representatives of the newly elected governments of the Persian Gulf states and India met via video-conferencing with representatives of ECON addressing their concerns over the threat of American forces in Pakistan. Further meetings followed leading to the events that follow.