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The Great Middle Eastern War was a massive conflict in the Middle East that lasted for twenty years and resulted in over 40 million lives lost. The war began during the Global War on Terror and involved practically every nation in the Mid-East fighting each other. The war destroyed much of the Middle East’s infrastructure, displaced millions of people and resulted in the creation of the Middle Eastern Council, a peacekeeping organization led by Turkey.

Background[]

Global War on Terror[]

The Global Liberation Army invaded Iran in 2023. With the help of the silver-tongued Abdul bin Yusuuf, the GLA managed to garner a large amount of support in protest against the government. Eventually, these protestors rallied under the GLA banner and openly fought the government in what quickly devolved into a civil war. The GLA were hoping to establish abeachhead in the Middle East via Iran and plunder its relatively advanced military arsenal. Though they were mildly successful, the Iranian loyalists put up a mighty defense, and protected many of the larger cities – including Tehran, which was defended against GLA incursions over a dozen times.

Anwar Sulaymaan, one of the GLA’s most notorious commanders, advanced through Iran into neighboring Iraq where he managed to topple the weak, pro-American regime in a matter of weeks. Since they were already occupied in Kazakhstan, the U.S. asked Saudi Arabia for assistance in dealing with the Middle Eastern matter and jointly conducted Operation ‘Final Justice’ in 2025. Although it cost many lives, the GLA-occupied Iraq was successfully liberated after several months of fighting. The U.S./Saudi coalition now turned their eyes to Iran, and realized that in their weakened state they could eliminate one of their bigger adversaries off the playing field. So in 2026 they jointly invaded Iran, creating a three-way war between the U.S./Saudi forces, the Iranian loyalists and GLA extremists.

Escalation and sabotage[]

With Iran being invaded from every possible direction, several radicals in the loyalist faction sought desperate measures. A special ops team raided and sabotaged the largest desalination facility in Saudi Arabia, crippling the water supply for the entire Arabian Peninsula and cut off water to millions of homes. With chaos gripping its cities, Saudi Arabia was forced to pull back most of its forces, and just one year later the United States retreated as well due to other circumstances. With the GLA moving on to North Africa, Iran was now stable again, but their war with Saudi Arabia had just begun.

Course of the War[]

Nuclear attacks[]

In an attempt to level the playing field, Saudi Arabia retaliated with a tactical nuclear strike. Iran responded, and from there things went worse. In just several days both countries had exhausted their entire nuclear arsenals, and the majority of their military forces had been decimated. The destruction caused by the nukes displaced millions of people, and there really is only one proper way to describe what followed: Total anarchy.

Both nations followed up by conscripting tens of millions of civilians into organized militias. Many people found themselves pushed into combat with little more than a rifle and some magazines. By now, both sides were desperate to claim as much enemy territory as possible before the eventual peace talks begin.

Iraq situation[]

With the United States in full retreat mid-2027, and the GLA all the way over in North Africa, Iraq became a vacuum. Both Iran and Saudi Arabia flooded in and battled for the ancient country. Baghdad became a meat grinder, even worse than the 2003 invasion and GLA occupation combined. Many historic sites were destroyed and thousands died, filling the streets with blood. The militia armies were ordered to show no quarter for their enemies, motivated with religious fervor pent up through decades of tensions releasing in a single moment. Reports say people resorted to using medieval weaponry looted from museums when their ammunition ran dry, storming enemy positions with swords raised in the air.

Israel and Palestine[]

Following the Tel Aviv chemical attack of 2026, Israel became an isolated authoritarian state. In order to keep out the Palestinians for good, they constructed a massive wall dividing the ancient city of Jerusalem for good. This wall did not even have doors; no Israeli or Palestinian was allowed to move through it. The remaining Israeli borders were barricaded with thousands of mines, tank traps, chain-link fences, barbed wire and cannons as far as the eye could see. Syria threatened to invade, but with Israel’s nuclear arsenal on full alert after the attack, they didn’t dare, and focused their attention on the Kurd Peshmerga causing trouble in the north-east.

A hundred different sides[]

By 2030, over ten million people had perished already, but the conflict had just begun. People began protesting the forced conscription en masse, which lead to an incident in early 2031. Several men in southern Iran refused to enter a truck that would take them straight to the front, eventually punching the Iranian troops to get away. The soldiers responded by opening fire, killing the men and many more in the ensuing gunfire. Because of this, the population rose up and openly fought the government, reigniting the earlier civil war – but this time with different sides.

In both Iran and Saudi Arabia there were many groups fighting for power. The weak governments were unable to control the situation, and soon the militias wrangled themselves out of their control. The conflict spread into neighboring countries, like Jordan, Yemen, Oman, Syria and Afghanistan. Many presumed-dead terrorist organizations reawakened, and many more were formed. By 2034, several new nation-states had been formed:

  • Yemen had split into the historic division of North and South Yemen.
  • Jordan had conquered territory in Saudi Arabia, once again becoming Transjordan.
  • The holy cities on the Saudi west coast formed their own city-state for security purposes.
  • The Kurdistan provisional government declared independence, and the Peshmerga force claimed more territory as the years passed.
  • Militia groups in southern Iraq banded together and formed a Mesopotamian nation.
  • Baluchistan separatists broke away from Pakistan, violently resisting the government.

And these were only the recognized nations post-war. From 2034 to 2045, the Mid-East was embroiled in a giant civil war, the result of centuries of conflict that would lead up to one final, massive war in the birthplace of civilization. By 2045, an estimated number of 40 million people had died in the war, and almost double that number had been displaced.

Final years[]

In 2045, just after the outbreak of the Russo-European War, the leaders of almost twenty new nations decided that they could not keep fighting like this. Almost no leader from when the war began was still alive, rendering their goals moot. Hundreds of people met in Abu Dhabi to negotiate a peace treaty, supervised by Turkey, which went through the war relatively unscathed save for a few border changes in the south-east with Kurdistan.

The Treaty of Abu Dhabi was signed, ending the Great Middle Eastern War between the main belligerents. Many nongovernmental terrorist and militia organizations which were obviously exempt from the talks continued to fight, but with little support from the people eventually fell into obscurity. The Middle Eastern Council was established, a sort-of Middle Eastern union, that would oversee peacekeeping operations and the rebuilding of the devastated region.

Aftermath[]

With the Middle Eastern Council established, peace was finally restored to Asia Minor. Many new countries were recognized by their neighbors, which was enough to grant them provisional authority, and every member state abolished their armed forces in favor of a multinational peacekeeping force. Even Israel, hunkered down in their massive fortress, resumed diplomatic relations with the new level-headed leaders of the Mid-East. Although this was at a massive cost; over 40 million people had died, many cities lay in ruins, several areas were irradiated wastelands and the reconstruction would take years, if not decades to complete.

Some of the new countries include the secular Republic of Persia, a new Saudi Arabia that abolished the monarchy, a Babylonian republic and a recognized Kurdistan. Yemen was reunited several years later, and Baluchistan willingly absorbed back into Pakistan once the new Bangalore Pact with India was established.

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