Middle East Borders

The crumbling of the Ottoman Empire left behind a power vacuum and a web of vague and ill-defined boundaries in its former lands. The political intrigues of European powers before and after World War I produced today's boundaries, which many Arabs say are arbitrary. Borders rarely mattered before oil was discovered; now they are one of the reasons that Iraq invaded Iran in 1980 and Kuwait in 1990.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders may be talking at last, but travelers between Israel and its Arab neighbors still need to pay close attention to their passports. Many Middle Eastern nations for years have refused to admit travelers bearing Israeli stamps in their passports. And even though relations between governments have been fitfully improving, U.S. State Department officials say some immigration agents may still cling to old policies. But which immigration agents?

Somewhere amid the tomato plants and garlic fields in the U.N. Demilitarized Zone here, there once stood a date palm tree. When a young British officer named Maj. John More set off on foot to draw what has become one of the world's most contentious and embattled lines in the sand 69 years ago, that "southerly palm" was about the only natural landmark he could find in the desert wasteland between what are now Iraq and Kuwait.

Somewhere amid the tomato plants and garlic fields in the U.N. Demilitarized Zone here, there once stood a date palm tree. When a young British officer named Maj. John More set off on foot to draw what has become one of the world's most contentious and embattled lines in the sand 69 years ago, that "southerly palm" was about the only natural landmark he could find in the desert wasteland between what are now Iraq and Kuwait.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders may be talking at last, but travelers between Israel and its Arab neighbors still need to pay close attention to their passports. Many Middle Eastern nations for years have refused to admit travelers bearing Israeli stamps in their passports. And even though relations between governments have been fitfully improving, U.S. State Department officials say some immigration agents may still cling to old policies. But which immigration agents?

PLO leader Yasser Arafat, in his first interview with an Israeli newspaper in 10 years, said Friday that he would be willing to meet Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to talk peace. Arafat, whose remarks were published in the respected daily Haaretz, also said that Israel has nothing to fear from offering Palestinians the right of return--an issue the Jewish state has refused to discuss.

irbil, iraq -- Unshackled from Arab domination and the yoke of Saddam Hussein's regime, Iraqi Kurdistan has grown into a powerful incubator of Kurdish ambitions and nationalism. But the enclave in northern Iraq also has the potential to destabilize the Middle East, with recent tensions raising the specter of a regional war. For months, neighbors Iran and Turkey have been engaged in battles against Kurdish separatists who have established camps in Iraq's Kurdistan region.

Many messy sideshows are expected in a war to topple Saddam Hussein, but few will be more dangerous than in the mountains of northern Iraq, where Turkey's national security will collide with Kurdish dreams of a homeland. As diplomats bicker over the language of U.N. resolutions, tensions are hardening along the 220-mile Turkish-Iraqi border. Tents are being shipped in for refugees as the Turkish government prepares for possible deployment of thousands more troops.

The crumbling of the Ottoman Empire left behind a power vacuum and a web of vague and ill-defined boundaries in its former lands. The political intrigues of European powers before and after World War I produced today's boundaries, which many Arabs say are arbitrary. Borders rarely mattered before oil was discovered; now they are one of the reasons that Iraq invaded Iran in 1980 and Kuwait in 1990.