Arab Mashreq: a regional and international battlefield (3-5)

Regional scene
Challenges and opportunities

Russia's transfer of the geopolitical conflict to Syria and the rest of the Levant countries, and the expansion of trade and investment in China, have caused Western and American reactions in particular, due to considerations related to the international balance and its political and economic consequences, and its reflection on the existing international system and its working mechanisms.

This transfer of conflict has generated a complex network of contradictions and intersections, in light of the existence of regional states competing for domination and control in the region (Israel, Iran and Turkey), and others seeking to protect their systems from the consequences of this competition by working to encircle conflicts, contain their salaries and play in their margins to keep their fires away from them (Saudi Arabia) And the Emirates and Qatar), and made the Arab Mashreq countries an arena for settling accounts and imposing wills and interests.

Regional scene
Since the establishment of the Zionist movement on the land of Palestine, Israel has adopted a strategy of weakening the Arab environment (its national enemy), by working to divide its states on religious, sectarian, and national grounds, to justify the establishment of its state on a religious basis, and an alliance with non-Arab neighbors (Turkey, Iran and Ethiopia) To weaken the surrounding Arab countries.

Israel fought wars with the Arab countries: the 1956 Suez war with Egypt, the June 1967 war with Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, and the October 1973 war with Egypt and Syria, and in 1982 it occupied a large part of the land of Lebanon, so its occupation continued until 2000.

Through these wars, she succeeded in making settlements with Egypt under the Camp David agreement 1979, and Jordan in the Wadi Araba agreement in 1994, and concluded the Oslo agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993, but she did not abide by its requirements, but transformed it into a cover for settlement and the destruction of the Palestinian meeting and its political entity.

Israel then adopted a new strategy based on breaching the Arab rejection, providing technical, security and economic inducements to Arab regimes, taking advantage of inter-party differences and the loss of popular legitimacy for most of them, and the weight of the United States in these countries; and established trade and security relations with a number of them transforming the state of war and peace and breaking up the Arab consensus on The centrality of the Palestinian cause to a collar to strangle the Palestinians and end the dream of an independent Palestinian state; and an opportunity for political, economic and security expansion in the Arab states.

However, the realization of her dream of unilateral domination of the region - whose indicators seemed to be the collapse of Arab power, and its entry into a state of weightlessness in the absence of a motivating idea and the struggle of Arab regimes over leadership - clashed with two aspiring regional powers: Iran and Turkey.

The first adopted - under the influence of external concerns and fears - an offensive strategy with a doctrinal background under the slogan "exporting the revolution" and "championing the weak", the first directed to Islamic countries and the second directed to foreign countries; and transformed it into a formal commitment to include it in the text of the constitution.

But Iran's failure to "export the revolution" and engage it in a state of chronic hostility with the United States, prompted it to change its tactic from polarization to penetration; by investing Shiite injustice and linking Shi'a citizens to it by demanding their legitimate rights; and employing it to gain a foothold in countries with a balanced portion of Its citizens go to the Twelver Shi'a Doctrine (the official doctrine in Iran).

It also employed its huge financial capabilities in the funeral of new citizens to expand its influence and increase its ability to influence, and invest their followers in establishing political entities and sectarian militias and training and arm them to play the role of a cat's claw in these countries, with a focus on the neighboring countries of Palestine.

It sought to transform these Palestinian entities and factions that it attracted - through massive military and financial support - into equivalent forces, and to use them in proxy wars and play the role of hoops to protect Iranian national security, and as a tool to pressure the United States to deter it from attacking it and toppling its regime by threatening revenge against its spoiled child: Israel.

Challenges and opportunities
This strategy has played a major role in the achievements of the Iranian regime abroad: penetration of more than one Arab country, and control of an important part of its national decision (Iranian leaders boast of controlling four Arab capitals: Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut, and Sana'a, and the return of the Persian Empire with its capital, Baghdad) Its use as a bargaining chip and political bargains with regional and international powers.

This has transformed it into a challenge to Israel and an opportunity at the same time; it is a challenge because it is dangerous, especially with the development of its scientific and military capabilities: the nuclear program, ballistic missiles and drones; and an opportunity because it has raised security and social problems for Arab countries, by triggering sectarian conflicts between its citizens and tearing its civil peace, and turned into the enemy The first of these countries, which eased their hostility to them on the basis of "my enemy's enemy is my friend."

The second (Turkey) has turned - under the ruling of the Justice and Development Party - from an ally of Israel to a disturbing competitor for influence and control, against the background of the adoption of the new system - Islamic ideological considerations - to defend the demands of the Palestinians and the rights of Muslims in Jerusalem, which has become a dangerous competitor, especially after Achieving major economic achievements, improving Turkey's military capabilities, and its political and economic openness to the Arab neighboring countries.

This is in addition to its becoming an inspiring model for Arab popular and political sectors, as it is a Sunni counterweight to Shiite Iran, which has played on the sectarian dispute, and has caused strife and chaos and destroyed fragile stability in a number of Arab countries; and it adopts a strategic vision based on strengthening its role and influence in the Arab and Islamic fields, relying on His soft and hard power and common history during the Ottoman period under the slogan of the new Ottoman, and his support for the Arab Spring revolutions and the force of change and modernization it carries.

Moreover, Turkey has succeeded in establishing cooperation and trade relations with a large number of countries in the region and the world, building two military bases, one in Qatar and the other in Somalia, and signed a military memorandum of understanding with the internationally recognized Libyan government.

But Israel - in light of the difference between the two challenges - adopted a political and military approach to the first (Iranian) challenge, through international incitement against its aggression and the dangers of its nuclear project, spying on it, defaming its nature, assassinating nuclear scientists, and bombing Iranian and other Iranian sites located on Syrian and Iraqi soil.

While it dealt with the second (Turkish) challenge politically and diplomatically, and invested in its differences with its regional opponents: Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, against the backdrop of its adoption and support for the Muslim Brotherhood movements and competition for leadership of the Sunni world; and in its differences with Greece and Greek Cyprus, against the background of the Cyprus issue, economic water and exploration On gas in the eastern Mediterranean basin.

Israel has formed an alliance with Egypt, Greece, and the Greek Cypriot alliance to invest and export gas, which prompted Turkey to respond to it by signing a memorandum delineating the maritime borders with the Libyan government of reconciliation, to secure a legal cover for its demands related to gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean basin.