Ominous signs

The realignment of forces in the Middle East is becoming more and more complex. With the Lebanon debacle still unresolved, an unlikely alliance might just be emerging in the region, one that could add to the escalating conflicts in the Middle East. Rumours of collaboration between Israel and Saudi Arabia have existed since the Syrian conflict blew up, but now the Israeli military chief has openly suggested that his country wants military cooperation with Saudi Arabia to deal with the Iran threat. This bizarre equation of Iran being the threat continues to come up from the US and Israel – even now when there is a need to counter the threat posed by the Islamic State. The approach of using pressure against Iran has not been changed and has in fact become more exaggerated since Trump took power and went on his trip around the Middle East. The fact is that isolating Iran has never worked. The failure of the Iraq-Iraq war should be a good indicator that militarily isolating Iran is rather bad strategy. Moreover, the sanctions put on Iran due to its alleged nuclear problem too have never led to much change.
The larger issue, of course, is that it seems that instead of improving the situation by reducing the conflicts in the Middle East, the anti-Iran narrative seems to want to create more conflict hotspots. What is to be gained from this exercise is an open question. Within all of this, the so-called solidarity of the Muslim states with Palestine is also being sidelined. Some have seen the Saudi Grand Mufti’s criticism of Hamas last week as an overture to what Israel is saying. Israel’s appeal for joint action on Iran also further puts into doubt the aims of the so-called Muslim Nato assembled under the auspices of Saudi Arabia. It also appears that the purges within Saudi Arabia by Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman are set to push the country onto a more militaristic path. This is not a good idea. The Saudi-Iran problems are already playing out in all the civil wars of the Middle East. With Israel flexing its muscles, we may be entering into more troubled waters in the region. The emergence of any such alliance in the Middle East will be a disaster, and any hope for peace in the Middle East any time soon can be put to bed if this continues.