At Some Point, Regional Powers Will Intervene to Block a Restored Caliphate – Lee Smith
(dailyalert.org, Jun. 13, 2014)

ISIS claims it is in the process of restoring the caliphate, and erasing the Sykes-Picot lines drawn by the Great Powers in 1916. Long before ISIS planted its flag to claim a caliphate, the Muslim Brotherhood was there first, promising its adherents a political order that would unite Arabs from North Africa to the Persian Gulf under the banner of Islam. Nonetheless, Muslim Brotherhood chapters around the region, and even sometimes within states, are in constant competition with each other.

    The Sykes-Picot lines were drawn in the full knowledge that Arab unity was a myth. Arab efforts to redraw Sykes-Picot, like Saddam’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait, have been rebuffed by the Western powers. It is likely that at some point, regional as well as international powers will intervene and send everyone back to their corners – the states established by the Sykes-Picot lines. (Tablet)