At the start of this year, shortly after the US and other world powers reached an interim deal with Iran to negotiate further on its nuclear programme, The New Yorker magazine published a fascinating, discursive interview with Barack Obama. The US president floated the idea of a sort of competitive equilibrium in the Middle East to replace the sectarian struggle within Islam between Sunni and Shia, and the proxy wars across the region pursued by Saudi Arabia and Iran from each side of this schism.
今年年初,在美國和其他世界強國與伊朗達成進一步談判其核計劃的臨時協議之後不久,《紐約客》(The New Yorker)刊登了對美國總統巴拉克•歐巴馬(Barack Obama)進行的有趣而隨意的採訪。歐巴馬在採訪中談到了在中東地區實現某種競爭性均衡的想法,以此取代伊斯蘭內部遜尼派和什葉派之間的教派衝突,以及沙烏地阿拉伯和伊朗分別代表兩派在整個中東地區展開的代理人戰爭。