GCC unveils vision for regional security

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has launched its Vision for Regional Security during a ceremony at the group's General Secretariat in Riyadh. This landmark initiative, presented by Jasem Albudaiwi, Secretary General of the GCC, signifies a profound commitment to ethical values and unity, aiming to build a hopeful and prosperous future for the region.

The Vision for Regional Security, highlighted by Albudaiwi as more than just a political commitment, is founded on the principles of dialogue, cooperation, coordination, and respect for diverse perspectives. These principles are deemed essential for confronting challenges and ensuring the common security upon which the GCC's aspirations for a better future are based.

The ceremony, attended by senior officials from the foreign ministries of GCC countries, diplomats, and experts, marks a pivotal step toward achieving international security and peace.

The GCC's dedication to tackling political, security, and economic challenges both regionally and globally was reiterated, emphasizing the importance of collective action and sincere will in establishing lasting peace.

Albudaiwi outlined the vision's strategic objectives, which focus on preserving regional security, ensuring stability and prosperity, promoting international peace, and fostering economic and environmental sustainability. The vision comprises several pillars, including security and stability, economic development, and environmental and climate change, addressing a wide array of challenges from geopolitical shifts to cultural and social issues.

This vision represents a call to action for all parties to collaborate toward a secure and prosperous future, reinforcing the GCC's role as a reliable partner in political, security, and economic spheres on the global stage.

Exploring reasons for current situation in Gaza

An Iranian parliament member has condemned Arab countries for their inaction and impotence against the Israeli regime. He went to the extent of saying today’s dire situation in the Gaza strip is the result of their largely pro-Israeli policies. 

Mohammad Sargazi warned that the behavior of Arab states will ultimately lay waste to their own interests. “If the inaction and disunity of Arab countries continue and they fail to stop the crimes of the Zionist regime against the oppressed people of Palestine, they themselves will soon turn into legitimate targets for the military of the United States and Israel,” he added. 

The lawmaker stated that Israel began a massive massacre of Palestinians in Gaza after Arab governments refused to get themselves involved in the affairs of Palestine for years. 

“Arab governments and Islamic countries must come together to stop these crimes and take practical action. The inaction of Arab governments to stop the crimes against the oppressed people of Palestine will have no result other than what we are witnessing today,” he noted.

In recent years, Some Arab countries including the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and most recently Saudi Arabia, have moved towards recognizing the Israeli regime as the acting government of Palestine while disregarding Palestinians’ call for support. 

Since Israel began its latest onslaughts against Palestinians, certain Arab states in the region have merely released statements condemning the regime for its actions. 

The Cairo Peace Summit that was held in Egypt last month failed to bear any concrete results. Some videos circulating online have shown aid trucks sent to 
Gaza by some Arab countries filled with shrouds and expired antibiotics, which are unlikely to be of significant help as more than 2.3 million people in the territory are being deprived of food, water, and fuel. 

Several Palestinian activists have also taken to social media in recent weeks, complaining that they have long been abandoned by the majority of the Arab world. 

 

Syria claims intercepting Israeli missile attack

Syria claimed on Sunday its air defences intercepted what it called an Israeli missile strike across central parts of the country and downed most of the missiles.

An army statement said missiles that flew over parts of Lebanon's capital Beirut hit locations in the vicinity of the city of Homs, resulting only in material damage.

An Israeli military spokesman said Israeli warplanes targeted a Syrian air defence battery from which an anti-aircraft missile was launched towards Israel.

The warplanes also attacked other targets in the area, while no casualties were reported from the Syrian missile that exploded in mid-air, said the spokesman, Avichay Adraee.

Israel has in recent months intensified strikes on Syrian airports and air bases to disrupt Iran's increasing use of aerial supply lines to deliver arms to allies in Syria and Lebanon, including Lebanon's Hezbolla.

The Israeli strikes are part of an escalation of what has been a low-intensity conflict continuing for years with a goal of slowing Iran's growing entrenchment in Syria, Israeli military experts say.

Tehran's influence has grown in Syria since it began supporting President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war that started in 2011.

Fighters allied to Iran, including Hezbollah, now hold sway in areas in eastern, southern and northwestern Syria and in several suburbs around the capital.

 

 

 

 

Iran and Russia to facilitate Turkey and Syria in deescalating tension

After years of tensions, the foreign ministers of Turkey and Syria sat at the same table to discuss ways to deescalate tensions with help from Iran and Russia.

On Wednesday, Russia hosted an important quadrilateral meeting between Iran, Syria, Russia, and Turkey at the level of foreign ministers. The meeting was a giant step forward in terms of putting an end to differences between Turkey and Syria, which have been at loggerheads over the last decade. 

While some international issues have also been on the agenda, the Moscow meeting was primarily focused on the normalization of relations between Ankara and Damascus. The diametrically opposed positions of Syria and Turkey since the outbreak of the Syrian crisis in 2011 seriously have damaged their relations. With the Syrian government regaining control of much of its lost territory, Turkey moved to patch up relations with Syria with mediation and facilitation by Iran and Russia.

In the Wednesday meeting, this featured high on the agenda. The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement that the foreign ministers of the four countries held a substantive and frank discussion on issues related to resuming the interstate relations between Syria and Turkey in various aspects.

The Moscow meeting is another indication that Syria moving past crisis and war, a trend that prompted Turkey and many Arab states to restore ties with Damascus. Earlier this week, Syria was readmitted to the Arab League and Saudi Arabia reopened its diplomatic missions in Damascus. Currently, there are speculations that Syrian President Bashar Assad could take part in the upcoming summit of the Arab League in Saudi Arabia, which has already officially extended an invitation to Assad to participate in the summit. 

Turkey appears to be willing to keep up with this reconciliatory trend. In their meeting, the foreign ministers agreed to task the deputy foreign ministers to prepare a road map to advance the relations between Turkey and Syria in coordination with the work of the ministries of defense and special services of the four countries, according to the Russian statement. 

The statement added that the ministers noted a positive and constructive atmosphere of their exchange during the meeting and agreed to further maintain high-level contacts and technical talks in this quadripartite format in the upcoming period.

The Moscow meeting also provided a convivial atmosphere for the foreign ministers to hold bilateral meetings. The Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian held separate meetings with his Syria, Russian, and Turkish counterparts. 

In his meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad, Amir Abdollahian congratulated him on Syria’s readmission to the Arab League and expressed Iran’s support for the Turkish-Syrian normalization. 

Amir Abdollahian described the Moscow meeting as a step forward in his meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. The Turkish foreign minister, for his part, pointed to Iran’s important role in facilitating the quadrilateral meeting. 

As things stand, Turkey and Syria are making strides in restoring their ties. The full resumption of ties, however, is hindered by the fact that Turkish troops are illegally present in Syrian territory, thus contravening the Arab country’s territorial integrity. This point was raised in Moscow. 

In his speech at the joint meeting, Amir Abdollahian underlined that any political resolution to the Syrian issues must ensure Syria’s sovereignty over its entire territory, according to IRNA. 

Amir Abdollahian suggested that deployment of Syrian troops at the border regions can alleviate security concerns of Turkey and other neighboring countries, prevent terrorist and separatist activities, and set the stage for the withdrawal of Turkish military forces from the common border areas.

“We believe that a strong and independent Syria can overcome terrorism, separatism, occupation of American forces, and theft of the country's national resources,” he noted.

Iran’s top diplomat also stressed the need for joint efforts by regional countries and the rest of the international community to reconstruct Syria and prepare the ground for Syrian refugees to return to their homeland.

“Of course, any political precondition and double standards on this issue not only will not help solve this humanitarian issue but will also add to its complexity,” he pointed out.

The Iranian foreign minister pointed out that the beginning of talks between Syria and Turkey will benefit the people of the two countries and the security of the region.

“We deeply believe that these two countries can put the past behind them and resolve the bilateral issues through dialogue and deepening cooperation based on good neighborliness,” Amir Abdollahian said.

He also noted that the meeting in Moscow would have a strong message of peace and sustainable security in the region and strengthening of good neighborliness between Turkey and Syria.

 

Iranian president in Damascus for first visit since Syrian war began

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi landed in Damascus on Wednesday for talks with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad, Syrian state media reported, in the first visit by an Iranian head of state since war broke out in Syria in 2011.

With military and economic support from both Iran and Russia, Assad regained control of most of Syria from rebels that were backed by regional countries now seeking dialogue with him.

Raisi's visit comes as Iran and regional rival Saudi Arabia rebuild ties after years of tensions. Arab nations which had isolated Syria over its crackdown against protests in 2011 are developing a roadmap to end the 12-year war and reintegrate Syria into the Arab fold.

Speaking to pro-Iran broadcaster al-Mayadeen on the eve of his visit, Raisi said the trip would consolidate and develop ties with Syria and other allies, including Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, which also intervened in Syria on Assad's behalf.

Iranian and Syrian flags lined the airport road on Wednesday in preparation for the arrival of Raisi and his accompanying delegation, which includes Iran's ministers of oil, defence, foreign affairs and telecommunications.

Syrian state media said a number of agreements would be signed during the two-day visit.

Tehran has already supplied Assad's government with credit lines and won lucrative business contracts in the telecoms and mining industries, among others.

In parallel, it has become even more entrenched militarily. An Israeli rocket strike on Damascus in February killed Iranian military experts and Tehran has used the flow of aid in the aftermath of the deadly Feb. earthquake to bring in arms.

Assad has never publicly acknowledged that Iranian forces have operated on his behalf in Syria's civil war, saying Tehran has only military advisers on the ground.

 

Saudi Foreign Minister Meets Syrian President

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad met with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan on Tuesday. The Saudi minister is visiting Damascus currently in a significant step towards ending Syria’s decade-long regional isolation.

Al-Assad and Prince Faisal discussed the necessary steps to achieve a comprehensive political settlement to the Syrian crisis to end all its repercussions, achieve national reconciliation, and contribute to the return of Syria to its Arab surroundings.

They also discussed efforts made to reach a politician solution of the Syrian crisis that preserves the unity, security, and stability of Syria.

The Saudi minister stressed to the Syrian president the importance of providing a suitable environment for the arrival of aid to all regions in Syria, and preparing the necessary conditions for the return of the Syrian refugees and displaced persons to their homeland.

He also called for taking more measures that would contribute to stabilizing the situation in Syrian lands.

Prince Faisal conveyed the greetings of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Salman to the Syrian president, and their best wishes to the government and people of Syria to have security and stability.

The Syrian president extended his greetings and appreciation to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and the Crown Prince and for the government and people of Saudi Arabia.

The reception was attended by the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Political Affairs Dr. Saud Al-Sati and the Director General of Prince Faisal office Abdul Rahman Al-Dawood.

Saudi Foreign Ministry said the visit comes within the framework of Saudi Arabia's keenness and interest to reach a political solution to the Syrian crisis that ends all its repercussions and preserves Syria's unity, security, stability, and Arab identity. It also aims to restore Syria to its Arab surroundings, in a way that achieves the good of its people.

Prince Faisal was received upon his arrival at Damascus International Airport by the Minister of Presidency Affairs Mansour Azzam.

Last Friday, Saudi Arabia hosted a meeting of the GCC countries, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq, to discuss the Syrian crises. They called for unity in Syria and its return to the Arab fold.

They stressed the need to preserve Syria’s sovereignty by ending the presence of militias, emphasizing that the political solution is the only solution to the Syrian crisis.

Saudi Arabia welcomes resumption of diplomatic ties between Bahrain and Qatar

Saudi Arabia has welcomed the resumption of diplomatic relations between Bahrain and Qatar, which was announced following the second Qatari-Bahrain follow-up committee meeting in Riyadh.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs applauded this constructive step, which affirms the robustness of relations among members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and advances joint Gulf action that achieves the aspirations of the region's states and peoples.

The United States congratulated Bahrain and Qatar on their decision to resume diplomatic ties, State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said Thursday.

"This breakthrough represents a crucial step in our collective efforts to forge a more integrated, stable, peaceful, and prosperous region," Patel noted in a press release one day after the two GCC states reached a deal in this regard.

"The United States has sought to promote regional integration and de-escalation, including among these two important partners and Gulf Cooperation Council member states.

"The United States will continue to actively work with regional partners to advance this shared aim of a more integrated, stable and prosperous Middle East region," he added.

GCC Secretary-General Jassem Albudaiwi applauded the step, which stems from the directives of the leaders of the GCC countries that were issued at the "Sultan Qaboos and Sheikh Sabah Summit", which was held in AlUla in 2021.

He added that those instructions embody the GCC leaders' keenness to secure the future and protect the cohesion of the Council in line with key attributes of the links connecting the Council member states, including the bonds of kinship, friendship, brotherhood, history and common destiny, and unity which are the pillars of the GCC blessed march.

In a statement, the Cairo-based Arab Parliament hailed the Bahraini-Qatari agreement as a positive step toward enhancing joint Arab action and regional security and stability.

 

Abraham Accords: Biggest prank in international diplomacy

It was described as a historic breakthrough in Israeli-Arab relations that would strengthen security in West Asia. If anything, it has been a total disaster, perhaps the biggest prank in the history of West Asia.

Initiated under the former administration of US President Donald Trump, Israel was under the illusion that it would easily find new Arab friends under the Abraham Accords.

The regime occupying Palestine was also under the delusion of a new anti-Iran alliance or an Arab-NATO if you like. Some other think tanks and institutions colluded with the idea. The idea that Arabs and Muslims would warm to Israel which has committed war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and murdered tens of thousands of children were unimaginable even at the time. 

Nevertheless, rather than uniting against Israel, Arab countries appear to be uniting with Israel, some institutes said more than two years ago.

The other purpose of the failed initiative was to isolate Palestine, according to US officials who alleged that during Israel’s short honeymoon period, if more Arab states can normalize ties with Israel, the aspect of an occupied Palestinian territory would be accepted among Arabs and Muslims.

At the time, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu lauded the accords as a breakthrough because they separated normalization with Arab states from any peace for the Palestinians.

More than two years later, the states that normalized ties with Israel have gained nothing apart from emboldening Israel to further violate Palestinian rights.

The occupation has killed around 250 Palestinians in year 2022 alone, while injuring tens of thousands of others. The Palestinian death toll in the occupied West Bank in 2022 has already reached its highest total in seven years while armed Palestinian retaliatory operations have also sharply increased.

There has been an increase in raids on occupied Palestinian towns and villages and more settler incursions in the al-Aqsa Mosque compound - Islam’s third holiest site.

It is said that the normalization deals had some strings attached. For example, more support in the form of security or advanced arms sales from the United States or even Israel for the monarchies and states that normalized ties.

The Trump administration formally notified Congress that it intends to sell 50 stealth F-35 fighter jets to the UAE as part of the normalization deals.

Reports then emerged that the UAE informed the US it was suspending discussions to acquire the jets, which was part of a US$23 billion package that also includes drones and other advanced munitions.

The sale of 50 F-35 warplanes made by Lockheed Martin to the UAE had already slowed; reportedly over concerns in Washington over Abu Dhabi's relationship with China, including the use of Huawei 5G technology in the country. Two years later, 50 F-35 warplanes remain grounded in the United States. 

The agreements signed at the White House some two years ago between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco tried to open the door to improve relations with Israel’s neighbors. Instead, it has firmly shut the door in Israel’s face and has seen rising anger against the regime in the region and beyond.

Over the past two years, support for Palestine has increased even more than before the Abraham Accords. Nowhere has this been more evident than at the Qatar World Cup over the past two weeks. Footage has captured Palestinian flags being waved both inside and outside stadiums, national teams carrying the Palestinian flag, and chants at stadiums in support of Palestine.

This is while Israeli settlers and journalists who traveled to Qatar have felt threatened while facing and witnessing firsthand, the hatred of the people of the region towards the regime and its atrocities against women and children. 

In occupied Palestine, Tamar Weiss an Israeli author acknowledged “at the end of the day, there isn’t such a difference compared to before the Abraham Accords, always when there is change, it raises hope. But until now, things have not changed. All that is left is hope.

Meanwhile, we haven’t changed anything in our approach toward the Palestinians. Nothing has changed. As I see it, the feeling of the person on the street is that things are the same.

Despite the propaganda campaign, there has been little tourism between Israel and the states that normalized ties with it. That is because Arabs feel there is no security for them in the Israeli-occupied territories and Israeli settlers feel there is no security for them in the Arab world.

There are some nations in West Asia where the rulers are open to relations with Israel but their people are opposed to such moves. There are also some nations in West Asia where the governments and their people are firmly opposed to any form of normalization.

And there are some nations in West Asia where the governments and their people are not only strongly opposed to any form of normalization but are openly and officially calling for the delivery of weapons to the oppressed Palestinian people.

United States and changing dynamics of MENA

The Saudi hosting of Chinese President Xi Jinping, on December 08, underscored the dramatic clarification in 2022 of Saudi Arabia’s multipolar foreign policy, very much mirroring the United Arab Emirates’ decisions over the course of the year.

Global events, particularly the split in Gulf countries’ reactions over Russia’s aggression in Ukraine as well as the October oil production cut determined by the Saudi-dominated OPEC Plus consortium, exacerbated differences with the United States, including on issues ranging from Iran to human rights and civil liberties concerns. Popular perceptions in the United States and in the region as well have characterized these actions as reflecting hostility, especially toward the Biden administration.

In fact, the Gulf’s differences with the US have been on the rise for many years. Frustrations over US policies — ranging from the 2003 invasion of Iraq to the response to the 2011 Arab Spring popular uprisings and including the 2015 agreement with Iran on its nuclear program — have encouraged closer relations with other great powers, namely China and Russia.

Notably, China has emerged as the region’s number one trade and economic partner, while Russia, aided by President Vladimir Putin’s aggressive wooing of Gulf counterparts, has become a key partner in the global energy sector.

At the same time, a new generation of leaders in the Gulf, especially Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, and the UAE’s president, Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, came to power more determined to pursue an independent foreign policy course that they considered more reflective of their nation’s leadership in regional and global affairs.

Included in that determination is a willingness to break with Washington on the response to global issues spanning the gamut, from the Ukraine war to Libya to the Horn of Africa.

As President Joe Biden’s visit to the region in July exemplified, this shift by the leading Gulf states to a multipolar policy does not mean necessarily that US relations with the region have become obsolete.

Given the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members’ reliance in the defense and security realm not only on the US defense umbrella but also on US equipment, training, and doctrine for their own militaries, it’s unlikely that the GCC states would willingly move away from a continuation of that relationship. But it does mean that US policymakers can no longer assume that Gulf governments will follow a US lead on setting policy for either regional or global issues.

Going forward, to ensure Gulf cooperation, the US side will need to make the case that its policy preferences are consistent with Gulf leaders’ perspectives on their own national interests. Initiatives like the Joint Working Group on Iran should be increasingly a centerpiece of US engagement with the region.

 

 

 

 

 

Growing Arab Israel Military alliance and Iranian Response

Lately, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi announced preparations for a potential upcoming military operation, foreshadowing a possible move against Iran.

Kochavi’s announcement came shortly after Israel and Foreign Ministers of four Arab nations — Morocco, Egypt, the UAE, and Bahrain — along with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, met at the Negev Summit in the Israeli desert to lay the foundation for a strategic military alliance to deter "Iran and its associated militias," as the then Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid put it.

The conflict between Iran and other regional states, including both Israel and Arab nations, spans over four decades. The battle for dominance in the Middle East began in 1979 with the Islamic Revolution in Iran.

The former supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, declared Iran to be the legitimate nation of Islam, and began a campaign to export the revolution, as he believed it should be used as a model for other nations in the region. He thought that, through mass mobilization, Islamic values would triumph over corruption, repression, and Western influence.

The Islamic Republic believed that it could destabilize the region and rebuild it in its image. "Our revolution will not win unless it is exported," said Abolhassan Banisadr, the Islamic Republic’s first president.

 "We are going to create a new order in which deprived people will not always be deprived," he stated, referring to Shi’a Muslims. The new regime used this cause as a veneer for its efforts to further its ideological, geopolitical, and economic ambitions.

In response to Iranian expansionism, six Persian Gulf states — Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, and Qatar — formed the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in 1981. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, along with other Gulf states, supported Iraq's Saddam Hussein in a full-scale invasion of Iran in late 1980, driving Iran and Arab nations further apart. 

Iran has successfully kept this growing regional conflict outside its borders by starting proxies in weaker states situated between it and its rivals. Iran has been accused of meddling in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen's domestic affairs and helping pro-Iranian actors gain or remain in power.

The result has been to undermine the regional order, and the Middle East is now home to several failing states, civil wars, and major humanitarian crises.

In addition, the Islamic Republic's belligerent expansionism has pushed Arab nations and Israel closer to each other, slowly at first but much more rapidly in recent years. 

Iran presents a substantial military threat

Tehran’s missile and drone capabilities exceed those of nearly all of its regional adversaries and it has embraced unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), significantly enhancing its air superiority. Former CENTCOM Commander Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. warned that, thanks to Iran's drone program, the US is "operating without complete air superiority” for the first time since the Korean War.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) shares these capabilities with Iranian-backed militias — including Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, the Popular Mobilization Forces, and the Houthis — to be used in proxy wars or in attacks within the borders of Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. 

In recent years, and especially since the signing of the Abraham Accords in late 2020, Israel has proven to be a viable ally for Arab nations facing the threat of Iran.

In mid-February 2022, Israeli forces carried out a devastating attack on an airbase in western Iran, destroying hundreds of Iranian drones. The Times of Israel reported that Israel is cooperating with Middle East allies to build a “joint defense system” to counter Iranian missiles and drones.

Like the Middle East Strategic Alliance (MESA) proposed by the Trump administration, the alliance will be modeled after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The strategic alliance will focus on shared air defenses and pave the way for sharing intelligence and military operational plans to prevent attacks. 

Information that comes out of Tehran is strictly controlled; nevertheless, there are other sources from which we can learn about Iran's response to this new alliance.

In 2018, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Saudi leaders of treason against the world of Islam for cooperating with the U.S. and Israel. Even though Iran has never declared war on Saudi Arabia, there have been hundreds of Houthi attacks on the kingdom, striking oil facilities and civilian areas. Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Energy has condemned the Islamic Republic for enabling and arming the Houthis. While Iran tries to mask its actions against other Muslim nations, it does not shy away from making its intentions with Israel clear has claimed that Israel will not exist in 25 year.

In addition, any association with Israel will get a country in trouble with the IRGC. Hossein Salami, the IRGC’s commander-in-chief, sees the new Arab-Israeli alliance as a direct threat to the IRGC's security, since it aims to create a new regional order. It would also, for the first time, give Israel a foothold in the Persian Gulf. Salami asked the GCC nations to reconsider their alliance and warned them that cooperation with Israel would lead to harsh consequences. He reiterated the IRGC forces’ combat readiness in various strategic positions in the Persian Gulf. 

IRGC-linked media outlets, such as Tasnim and Fars, have pushed a similar narrative. Some have added that the Israeli-Arab NATO-style regional alliance is a continuation of former President Donald Trump's Iran policy. Hossein Dalirian, a former editor of Fars turned social media influencer, has repeatedly supported Iran-backed Houthi attacks in Saudi Arabia and Yemen and even mocked the IDF’s inability to prevent the killing of five Israeli civilians in a recent terror attack.

As for Iranian academics’ perspectives, Islamic Azad University professor Mehdi Motaharnia expressed that the formation of the Arab-Israeli coalition against Iran is a response to the recent attacks carried out by Iran's proxies in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

In addition, he says that the prospect of the Biden administration withdrawing the IRGC from the list of foreign terrorist groups has given impetus to the creation of an Arab-Israeli NATO. Mehdi writes, "Israel is trying to redefine the security, military, political, diplomatic, economic, commercial, and even social" structure of the region to coexist with the Arab world and confront Iran.

Even though the Arab-Israeli alliance is an existential threat to the Iranian regime, it is unlikely that the regime will abandon its foundational ideologies, as doing so would delegitimize its cause. 

Moreover, Khamenei and the IRGC's expansionist agenda overshadows other perspectives within Iran, including that of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2019, then-Iranian President Hassan Rouhani unveiled a plan to bring security, peace, stability, and progress in the Persian Gulf, calling it the Coalition for Hope. It was the last attempt at uniting Iran and the GCC states. Unfortunately, the coalition failed to gain traction among the GCC states, as distrust between the two sides runs deep. Since then, the Islamic Republic has done little to restore trust and has instead doubled down on its antagonistic policies.

Khamenei and Salami's tone suggests that Iran's future foreign policy will be more of the same. If Khamenei, the IRGC, and their associated militias continue to undermine their own Foreign Ministry’s efforts to improve relations with neighboring nations, Iran will remain isolated and surrounded by enemies. Ironically, Iran’s strong-man foreign policy will fuel the alliance between the regional rivals that most threatens its security. Iran’s incendiary rhetoric and violent interference have forced a marriage of convenience between Israel and Arab nations that likely otherwise would not come together.