It has been an
extraordinary week of regional summits and high-level meetings that spell out
an evolving "new Middle East", to borrow a term from the late Israeli
prime minister Shimon Peres, versus an old one, and how possible bridges can be
built to connect the two.
اضافة اعلان
It began last Tuesday
when Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi hosted Israeli Prime Minister
Naftali Bennett and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed for a one-day
meeting at Sharm Al Sheikh. A photo opportunity was the main outcome of this
meeting that indicated a new shift in inter-regional relations following the
signing of the Abraham Accords in 2020.
On Friday, King
Abdullah hosted a four-way meeting in Aqaba that included Sisi, bin Zayed and
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustapha Kadhimi, now heading a caretaker government. Once
again there was no official joint declaration or statement.
On Sunday and Monday,
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid received the foreign ministers of Egypt,
Morocco, Bahrain and the UAE, who were joined by US Secretary of State Antony
Blinken. They held a six-way historic summit in the Israeli desert town of Sde
Boker that commemorated the Abraham Accords and underlined the emergence of a
new regional quasi-alliance in the making.
On the same day that
the Naqab summit formally convened, King Abdullah flew to Ramallah to meet with
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Amman had declined an Israeli invite to
join the Naqab summit. King Abdullah wanted to send a message that the old
conflict matters as much as the more recent ones.
To complete the
series, Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Monday flew to Cairo to meet his
Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shukri, who had just returned from Israel.
Interestingly, Shukri said that the Naqab summit was not about new regional
alliances, apparently a reference to Iran.
These meetings point
to a clash of axes and possible alliances that coincided with a high-level
visit to the region by Blinken. The top US official had traveled to Ramallah on
Sunday to meet with a despondent Abbas, who talked about double standards with
regard to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as well as the two-state solution.
Blinken, aside from repeating the Biden administration’s policy of backing the
two-state solution, had one clear message: the need to avoid escalations during
Ramadan.
That was his message
to the Israelis as well. For Israeli officials, the main theme was America’s
closing on a deal with Tehran. And the Naqab summit appeared to show Arab and
Israeli frustration with the Biden administration over its handling of the Iran
file.
While the Palestinian
issue was mentioned in statements by Lapid, Blinken, and almost all Arab
officials attending the summit, the main issue was the changing US role in the
region.
Blinken’s regional
tour was to reassure America’s allies that while a deal with Iran is close, it
will not affect regional security paradigms in any way. His visit had nothing
to do with Palestinian rights, the opening of a US consulate in East Jerusalem
or any other issue. On Blinken’s mind were two things: to keep the US regional
allies in line and to ramp up support for America’s attempt to strangle the
Russian economy.
It is safe to say that
he failed on both accounts: most participants in the Naqab summit have a
position that differs from the US on Russia’s war in Ukraine. While Abdullah
bin Zayed was in Moscow last week, regional leaders stayed in touch with
Russian President Vladimir Putin.
To assume that the
Naqab summit achieved the immediate US goals would be an
overstatement. The reality is that the US is more concerned now with
finalizing a deal with Iran than with the pressing security concerns of its
regional partners. This has to do with a bigger geopolitical game where Putin's
fate takes center stage.
Shifting regional
alliances is the main story. But old conflicts still matter. On the eve of the
convening of the Naqab summit, two Israeli Arabs killed two Israeli policemen
in a terror attack that was claimed, for the first time, by Daesh. How new
regional developments can change the existing power struggle in occupied
Palestine remains to be seen. But one thing now emerges as a new reality, and
that is that new conflicts can never overshadow old ones.
While new alliances
can cross over old conflicts — the elephant in the room will always be the
Palestinian issue — it would be almost impossible to create a new geopolitical
dynamic which pretends that old conflicts can just disappear.
The writer is a
journalist and a political commentator based in Amman.
Read more Opinion and Analysis
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
