"If you want peace, you must prepare for war," as the paradoxical saying goes. It is this paradox that has served as motivation for the normalization of relations between Israel and the Arab states. Both Israel and the Arab states know that a time will come, perhaps in the not-too-distant future, when they will have to stand together against their common foe, the Islamic Republic of Iran.
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Since the turn of the century, two new competing blocs of nation states have been emerging in the Middle East. One led by Saudi Arabia, and one led by Iran. In the Saudi-led Sunni Arab bloc, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, the North African Arab states, Yemen's officially recognized government, and some of the groups fighting in Syria. In the Iranian-led bloc, Qatar, Syria, the Houthis, who are now engaged in a war against Yemen's official government, and last but certainly not least, Iran's proxy army in Lebanon, Hezbollah, which has been busy supporting Syria's Iranian-backed dictator, Bashar Al-Assad, in his fight against rebels in his country, some of whom are supported by the Sunni bloc. The ongoing struggle for dominance between Saudi Arabia and Iran is no less than a cold war that has been rocking the Middle East since at least the beginning of this century.
The latest development in this cold war has been the UAE and Bahrain's official recognition of Israel. Beforehand, Israel was an unofficial ally in the Sunni Arab bloc's struggle against Iran. Now, Israel has officially joined the Saudi-led Sunni bloc, even though official ties between the Jewish state and Saudi Arabia have not yet been realized. Whether or not Israel and Saudi Arabia will establish full diplomatic relations is anyone's guess.
The battle lines in the Middle East have clearly been drawn, but these battle lines are just the ones on the Middle Eastern front. They are part of global battle lines that have been in the process of being drawn for the last two decades.
The Iranian-led bloc is part of an even larger, new global eastern bloc, composed of mainly of Russia, China, Iran, and Turkey. All four of these countries have been steadily expanding their political influence and military power, especially in the Middle East.
Now of course, the countries of the new eastern bloc have their differences, especially Turkey and Russia. Indeed, these two countries both support different sides in the Libyan civil conflict, as well as the Syrian civil war. They are also likely at odds over the recent conflict which has broken out over Nagorno-Karabakh between Armenia and Azerbaijan, since Turkey supports the latter country, while Russia enjoys decent relations with both countries, and also has a military base in Armenia. These differences, however, are not insurmountable, and will probably not stop them from collaborating on a wider scale.
Russia, China, Iran, and Turkey seek to divide the world amongst themselves, including the Middle East. Iran wants Iraq, Syria, and the Shiite majority regions of the Arabian Peninsula under its control. Turkey wants to revive the Ottoman Empire, and seeks to dominate all of the Sunni states that were formerly under Ottoman rule.
Most of North Africa and the Middle East are also ruled by dictators, some of whom have imperialist agendas of their own. Nevertheless, as the saying goes, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." This is the reason why Israel has joined the Sunni Arab bloc.
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