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Lebanese soldier in St Gilles citadel overlooking the Alawite district in Tripoli, where Syria-linked violence flared up last week (Photo: EUobserver)

Middle East risks becoming a 'giant failed state'

With EU countries crafting plans on how to shape events in Syria, David Hirst, a noted British writer on the Middle East, has warned that the Arab uprisings are a kind of "constructive chaos" out of Western control.

"What we're now witnessing is the greatest transformation of the region since the end of the first world war," he told EUobserver in an interview in his home in Beirut on Saturday (18 February).

"The order which the world powers imposed on the region after 1918 was an...

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Author Bio

Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's Foreign Affairs Editor. He has been writing about foreign and security affairs for EUobserver since 2005. He is Polish but grew up in the UK. He has also written for The Guardian, The Telegraph, and The Times of London.

Lebanese soldier in St Gilles citadel overlooking the Alawite district in Tripoli, where Syria-linked violence flared up last week (Photo: EUobserver)

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Author Bio

Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's Foreign Affairs Editor. He has been writing about foreign and security affairs for EUobserver since 2005. He is Polish but grew up in the UK. He has also written for The Guardian, The Telegraph, and The Times of London.

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