Author: Anil Trigunayat
In any war, the law of unintended consequences plays a unique part. The US-Iran-Israel war is no exception in this regard. Hitherto, for the rich Gulf countries, the US security umbrella was of utmost importance, providing a security cover against the religiously hegemonic Iran and geographically hegemonic Israel. Since 1979, with the advent of the Islamic regime of the Ayatollahs in Iran, the triad of US-Israel and Iran has suffered and been caught in a MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) syndrome. It was witnessed more between Tehran and Tel Aviv, which indulged mostly in covert warfare against one another, with Israel…
Even before US President Donald Trump took over the White House for the second time, he had ensured a ceasefire in the two-year-old Israel-Hamas war. Since, for the incoming president, it was tactical to please both his friend, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, and Hamas went back on the ceasefire as quickly as they had agreed to it. Since then, Trump has been working on adding, sometimes artificially, the closure of various wars and conflicts, however tenuous and temporary that peace may be, to his famous list of seven or eight, to legitimise his claims for a Nobel Peace Prize à…
The Middle East has suffered from volatility and security concerns for decades. There have been deep-seated rivalries that have manifested repeatedly, but the root causes remain unresolved, despite the Saudi-Iran and other Sunni countries’ rapprochement. Similarly, the Abraham Accords were intended to expand Israel’s diplomatic outreach in the region and bolster its security. This, in turn, was meant to free the United States, its sole security guarantor, to concentrate on more pressing priorities in the Indo-Pacific and the Eurasian war; however, the accords have failed to address the underlying issues. But the Middle East has an uncanny ability to draw…
