Not all is right in Middle East

The political upheavals in the Middle East and North Africa this year during which four Arab regimes collapsed were difficult to imagine at the beginning of 2011. No wonder, the geopolitical implications of the radical changes have drawn global attention.

The "Arab Spring" was sparked by the protests in Tunisia, which started on Dec 17, 2010, and forced the then Tunisian president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, to flee to Saudi Arabia in mid-January. In Egypt, Hosni Mubarak resigned on Feb 11 after 18 days of massive protests, ending his 30-year presidency. Later, with strong intervention of NATO forces, the opposition overthrew the Muammar Gadhafi government in Libya - Gadhafi was killed on Oct 20. And Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh eventually signed the Gulf Cooperation Council-brokered plan on Nov 23, setting the stage for transfer of power in the country.

Encouraged and excited by their success in Libya, Western powers turned to Syria, tightened sanctions against the country and demanded that President Bashar al-Assad step down. Assad could be the fifth Middle East leader to fall.