In 2007 the Near East will still be in the limelight of the world policy, since it's the very place where the interests of the West with the United States at the head contact with the Islamic world split into Shiism and Sunnism, director of the Institute of Oriental Studies at the RA Academy of Sciences, Dr Ruben Safrastyan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. In his opinion, the U.S. may lose control over Iraq thus boosting the possibility of large-scale armed collision between sunnits and shiits supported by Saudi Arabia and Iran respectively.

On the other hand, further escalation of conflicting zones in Palestine and Lebanon, struck by bloody battles last year, is also possible. Tension over the Iranian nuclear program is predictable as well. "We do not rule out that the U.S. may deal a blow on Iran's nuclear facilities and this will be the worst scenario pregnant with catastrophic consequences," Safrastyan said adding that the domestic situation in Turkey that tends to involve the army in politics may lead to unpredictable moves taken by the state in the region, specifically in Iraqi Kurdistan.

"All this gives to understand that the U.S. program on "democratization" and "stabilization" in the Near East so much advertised by the Bush administration has actually failed," he underscored.