Could Syria's Crisis Spread Across the Middle East?

March 30, 2012 from Al Jazeera English

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, is expected to meet Saudi leaders in Riyadh on Friday, with the crisis in Syria topping the agenda. Clinton is set to hold talks with King Abdullah, Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, and other senior Gulf diplomats to find ways to end the bloodshed in the country. International diplomacy has so far failed to end the conflict and there are growing fears that it could spread across the region. Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull reports.

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Syrian Civil War

The Syrian civil war is an ongoing armed conflict in Syria between forces loyal to the Syrian Ba'ath Party government and those seeking to oust it. The conflict began on 15 March 2011, with popular demonstrations that grew nationwide by April 2011. These demonstrations were pa... Explore this topic

Syria

Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south and Israel to the southwest. A country of fertile plains, high mountains and deserts, i... Explore this topic

Sunni Islam

Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam; its adherents are referred to in Arabic as ahl as-sunnah wa l-jamāʻah, "people of the tradition of Muhammad and the consensus of the Ummah" or ahl as-sunnah. For short, in English, they are known as Sunni Muslims, Sunnis, Sunnites or... Explore this topic

Alawite

The Alawites, also known as Alawis, Nusayris and Ansaris are a prominent mystical religious group centred in Syria who follow a branch of the Twelver school of Shia Islam. They were long persecuted for their beliefs by the various rulers of Syria, until Hafez al-Assad took pow... Explore this topic

Shia Islam

The Shia represent the largest schismatic sect in Islam, accounting for 10-20% of the world's normative body of Muslims. Adherents of Shia Islam are called Shi'ites or Shias. "Shia" is the short form of the historic phrase Shīʻatul ʻAlī, meaning "followers", "faction", or "par... Explore this topic

Hezbollah

Hezbollah — also transliterated Hizbullah, Hizballah, etc. — is a Shi'a Islamic militant group and political party based in Lebanon. It receives financial and political support from Iran and Syria, and its paramilitary wing is regarded as a resistance movement throughout much ... Explore this topic

Lebanon

Lebanon, officially the Lebanese Republic, is a country in the East Mediterranean. It is bordered by Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south. Lebanon's location at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian hinterland has dictated its rich history an... Explore this topic

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia, officially known as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is the largest Arab state in Western Asia by land area and the second-largest in the Arab world. It is bordered by Jordan and Iraq to the north, Kuwait to the northeast, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates ... Explore this topic

Iran

Iran or Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a country in Western Asia. The country is bordered on the north by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. As Iran is a littoral state of the Caspian Sea, which is an inland sea, Kazakhstan and Russia are also Iran's di... Explore this topic

Diplomacy

Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states. It usually refers to international diplomacy, the conduct of international relations through the intercession of professional diplomats with regard to issues of peace-maki... Explore this topic

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