There seems to be no end in sight for the religious war going on in the Middle East. More and more battlefronts are joining the long and inglorious list of cities, villages and other places where Sunnis are killing Shiites and vice versa.

A decisive victory is a long way off, and it is hard to predict which side, if any, will be the winner. For now, it seems that the two sects, which started fighting in the seventh century CE as part of the wars of succession after Mohammed’s death, will continue massacring one another for many years to come.

Three of the (at least) four Middle Eastern countries in which the Sunni–Shiite war has been going on no longer exist as successful nation-states: Iraq, Syria and Yemen. The fourth is Lebanon, which is managing to hang on to the designation of nation-state, though just barely.

As the most violent representative of the Sunni sect, the Islamic State terror group represents the most extreme element in the war between the Sunnis and the Shiites.

For all practical purposes, the fight over the future of the Middle East is much broader than the battles that Islamic State is fighting in Ramadi in Iraq or in Palmyra in Syria. The Sunnis’ great patron is Saudi Arabia, while Iran is sponsoring almost every known Shiite group operating in the enormous theater. Riyadh vs. Tehran is the name of the game.

Read the article in full at Times of Israel.