By Rio Duran

Tensions in the Middle East are ever-growing with the threat of ISIS and the civil war in Syria.

With every day that goes by something else seems to go wrong. Now with the events that happened on Jan, 2, it seems like the Middle East might tear itself apart.

On January 2nd the Saudi Arabian government executed 47 people who were related to terrorist acts that killed Saudis and foreigners alike. One of these people, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, was a prominent Shia cleric. With his death brought outrage from the Shia community. Relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran have crumbled, and other countries are sure to follow in this outrage. In fact, the two countries have severed all ties to each other, shutting down the embassies.

This tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia is growing at such an accelerated rate that it has the whole world concerned. If this is to keep growing, then it could break out in an all-out war between the countries in the Middle East. If you then take alliances into account, it could lead to an all-out world war if the superpowers were to get involved. This possibility is what has everyone worried.

The leader of Al-Qaeda is now threatening Saudi Arabia and wants to attack them for executing people who had ties to the terrorist organization. So far this is the only group that has sent threats, but that doesn’t mean that others won’t. Organizations like ISIS or Al-Qaeda might seek to take advantage of this situation by pitting countries against each other. With all of these building tensions, it seems like an attack is inevitable. Many fear that Al-Qaeda will use this as a spark to attack other nations as well.

With events still unraveling, all we can do is watch and hope that the situation defuses peacefully and that no one outside of the Middle East has to get involved