... with Damascus will be necessary sooner or later.
Also important is the fact that the U.S. still apparently has no interest in Syria, while its focus on the Middle East keeps shrinking. With a rather substantial military presence and operational capabilities ... ... logically leads to the inevitably growing autonomy and activity of regional states. First of all, this concerns Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Washington’s traditional partners in the region are now pursuing a more autonomous policy as compared to that of 8-10 years ...
... normalization of Turkey’s relations with neighboring Arab states, including a cautious rapprochement with Syria, mitigation of most disagreements that have impeded the work of the Gulf Cooperation Council, the end to the boycott of Syria by some of them (UAE, Jordan, Bahrain), the establishment of normal interstate relations with Syria, the maintenance of hidden channels of communication between Saudi Arabia and Iran with the assistance of Arab partners, the growing role of the UAE, Egypt and Qatar as moderators of internal conflicts in Lebanon, Iraq, Libya, and much more. Syria is almost central to this process. There is no consensus yet on ...
...
The second factor is
ideological
. The UAE’s leadership has
found
an ideological ally in President Bashar al-Assad, who, similar to UAE's President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has been on a counterrevolutionary crusade against Islamism, while Saudi Arabia and Qatar have supported Islamic radicals in Syria. The UAE was concerned about the empowerment of Islamist movements in Syria and its potentially negative impact on the Levant and the Gulf subregion, including the UAE itself. This is why Abu Dhabi chose to initiate the reconciliation process with Damascus ...
... that resulted in their declaration that they would respect the 2003 cease-fire accord. Earlier in 2018 the UAE together with Saudi Arabia played a key role in mediating the 2018 peace agreement between Eritrea and Ethiopia. In 2020 Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed played a key role in the attainment of the Abraham accords between Israel and several Arab states. The UAE is also seeking diplomatic solutions to tensions around countries such as Syria, Libya and Yemen.
Small countries do possess important advantages in conflict mediation compared to large economies – ...
...
As for Bahrain which is almost connected in its domestic and foreign policies with Saudi Arabia, it is slated that Manama will proceed further with the current trend of... ... also benefitting from the energy market, using the sanctions imposed on Tehran. With Syria and Iraq, he seeks to keep pushing for buffer zones to keep his borders clear... ... Tripoli, unless an agreement is reached among militant groups in addition to Turkey, the UAE, Qatar, Egypt, the USA and Russia. The impeachment process of US President Donald...
... experience a Saudi invasion in the Sunni dominated west, going all the way up to eastern Syria.
Lebanon
in North, may experience invasion by Israel in the south “ended”... ... Egyptian dominated “Arab Peace Force” into Beirut – effectively an occupation.
Saudi Arabia
:
(a) The political family-system is changed with US engineering. The country... ... increase in tensions (as described above).
Yemen
continues to be war-torn. Kuwait, the UAE and Oman continue their current path.
The North
Iran
will in all cases continue...
Despite differences over Syria and the Iranian nuclear deal, contemporary GCC-Russian relations are arguably at an apex, both in terms of shared interests ... ... against the backdrop of the West’s colonial policies, which were characterized by dividing and plundering the Arab states. Saudi Arabia appreciates that in those difficult initial years, Moscow provided Riyadh with critical oil products, bizarre as ...
... distance itself from the Gulf.
It’s amazing that it’s taken us so long to realize how much our money going into Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and other Gulf states comes back to haunt us: though Joe Biden recently got in trouble for saying so, support ... ... situations like in Egypt, for many years one of the top recipients of U.S. foreign aid, Obama and Americans, as was/is the case in Syria and Iraq, seems to prefer a “don’t do stupid shit” (to quote the president) approach.
Obama has—correctly—realized ...
