A Middle East Friendship Chart

With overlapping civil wars in Syria and Iraq, a new flare-up of violence between Israel and the Palestinians and the involvement of various groups in Egypt's politics, Middle Eastern politics are more volatile than ever and long-term alliances are shifting. Here's a helpful guide from Slate (a US daily general-interest magazine on the Web) for those feeling a bit lost to who is on whose side in the escalating chaos ('The Middle East Friendship Chart' by Joshua Keating and Chris Kirk). In the original you can click a cell to obtain more information. For example, I bet you did not know that the USA was in the Middle East.

 

and the most friendly state is Iraq.