Arab Summit: The big winner is the Mullah regime in Tehran Arab Summit: The big winner is the Mullah regime in Tehran

The Saudi crown prince appeared irritated when he opened the special summit of Arab and Islamic states in Riyadh on Saturday afternoon. Just two months ago, Mohammed bin Salam, alias MBS, spoke to US envoys about normalizing relations with Israel. The timing seemed right. Because “the Middle East has not been as calm as it is today in 20 years,” US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan announced on September 29.

Ten days later, after the Hamas terrorist attacks in the Gaza Strip, everything was different – ​​and MBS had to take action: as guardian of the holy places in Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem, he had no choice but to support the cause of the Palestinians , which the Saudi described as “supreme” to use. Nevertheless, it took almost a month before MBS could convene representatives of the Arab League states and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for an emergency summit.

Given the diplomatic wrangling in the run-up to the conference, it was clear from the start that participants would reach only minimal consensus in the final declaration.

The Iranian demand to declare the Israeli army a “terrorist organization” was rejected by the Saudi organizer, as was the threat of an oil embargo. The severance of diplomatic relations with Israel demanded by Iraq and Tunisia also went too far for the affected states.

Arab states without real means of power

So, as is almost always the case at Arab and Islamic summits, it remained a final resolution, the implementation of which in the near future is completely illusory: this applies only to the “international investigation into Israel’s crimes against humanity” carried out by the government is summoned. the summit, as well as on an ‘international arms embargo against Israel’, which the US and other Western states would prevent.

“Stopping Israeli aggression” in the Gaza Strip, which was strongly urged by the special summit, is also not possible without the direct participation of the much-criticized Americans. “Since we have no real influence, every step we take is ineffective,” said Syrian head of state Bashar al Assad, describing the dilemma of the conference participants.

In personal speeches they were given the opportunity to express their anger and dismay at the “genocidal war waged by the Israelis”. Usually they were not included in the final declaration. Once again, the emergency summit in Riyadh painted a “picture of the divided Arab-Islamic world,” said Syrian-American TV commentator Hashem Ahelbarra, analyzing the event in the Saudi capital.

The Iranian strategy does not allow for escalation in Lebanon

Iran could become the beneficiary of the most notorious Arab divisions. For the first time in more than a decade, an Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, traveled to Saudi Arabia. His speech, peppered with unrealistic demands, was a burden for most of the summit participants. Yet the Iranian did not stand in the way of writing the final communiqué from Riyadh. He dutifully followed the strategy decided upon by Iranian revolutionary leader Ali Khamenei in the Gaza war.

According to this, Iran and its allies must “avoid any sideshow that could distract from what is happening in the Palestinian territories.” In concrete terms, this also means that the small war on the Lebanese-Israeli border is unlikely to escalate quickly. “Despite the costs and losses suffered by the Palestinian people, international conditions have turned in their favor,” Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida quoted a source from Khamenei’s office as saying.

According to the ayatollah’s cynical calculation, this led to Israel losing its credibility and the international community also beginning to reconsider its attitude towards Israel. It is the Hamas terrorists and their supporters in Tehran who are benefiting from the current polarization in the Middle East, says terrorism researcher Peter R. Neumann, who teaches at Kings College London and analyzes the escalation of violence in the region.

Nothing is more polarizing than “murder, manslaughter and an alleged genocide”. And nothing is better suited to this than the conflict between Jews and Muslims in the Holy Land: “The latter mobilize with the suffering of the Palestinians and convey their own extreme messages.”