Can anyone give me a basic rundown of the Middle East, its current status and a basic history lesson.

I've been looking for information on Syria but I cant find but a few bits and pieces here and there.

Syria (and the rest of the Middle East) were last addressed in Shadows of Asia. As of 2063 or so, Syria remained a power base for the Islamic Unity Movement (IUM) and its military had taken most of Lebanon and is in a pissing-match with Israel over southern Lebanon and the Golan Heights. Hezbollah turn into the local criminal syndicate.

I am of course simplifying this substantially.

http://shadowrun.wikia.com/wiki/Shadowrun

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadowrun

one of these links has a fair break down on the middle east
runner's companion has middle east variant in also

search around. seems my links are are the rougher sites.

somewhere online there is good site

Both links give the same information. I've found bits and pieces on the Sixth World Wiki and in a handful of paragraphs in different sourcebooks (I'm trying to get Shadows of Asia now)

For run ideas you can look in Survival of the Fittest. One of the runs is in Tehran and touches on the whole situation in the Middle East.

Here are some search results you might find useful.

This looks like about the same responses you got to your last thread.

See the link in my sig for info on how I conducted the search.