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"Rising population and dwindling water supplies will affect millions of people and exacerbate conflict in the region"

Water crises in the Middle East are helping "radicalize" the region, according to VICE. The inaccessibility of clean drinking water, water scarcity, drought, and food insecurity all combine to "make communities vulnerable-especially to extremist groups.

"Friends of the Earth campaign highlights problem which it says is being exacerbated by hold-ups in Middle East peace process"

"From California to the Middle East, huge areas of the world are drying up and a billion people have no access to safe drinking water. US intelligence is warning of the dangers of shrinking resources and experts say the world is 'standing on a precipice'"

"Conflict continues to rage in Iraq over control of the Mosul dam, which impounds 11 cubic kilometres of water and controls water levels and supplies across the country, writes Jonathan Bridge. It's not the first battle fought over control of water - and it's certainly not the last in a drying Middle East with fast-growing populations."

For the past two years Iraq, Syria, Jordan and parts of Turkey and Lebanon, have suffered the devastating effects of the worst drought the Middle East has experienced in decades.

Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority have signed a water sharing pact aimed at one day replenishing the rapidly drying Dead Sea. The agreement will build a pipeline to carry brine from a desalination plant at the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, while providing drinking water to the region. The Dead Sea is dropping by as much as 1m (3.3ft) a year as the River Jordan is depleted for use in irrigation.

BAGHDAD: Iraqi officials voiced fears Wednesday that jihadis will use their seizure of a dam in Ramadi to mount fresh attacks on pro-government forces preparing to try to retake the city. A string of advances last month by ISIS cast doubt on the strategy of the U.S.-led coalition battling the jihadis, but Washington has insisted it is on the right track.