By Abdalla Ahmad, Senior Researcher and Advisor in Geopolitical Affairs, Damascus, Syria
For some, the picture in the Middle East may seem blurry and uncertain, but it’s very clear for international policy experts. So, what is happening in the Middle East is a reflection of the superpowers struggle to achieve a geopolitical gains.
To understand that, we must return to the beginnings: the American war for the Greater Middle East began in 1979 following the overthrow of the Shah in Iran, and the subsequent hostage crisis. Since then , apart of the bizarre Iran-contra episode,Washington had viewed Iran the “other” to be ignored and isolated, but the US expanded its war to include Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, Bosnia, Kosovo, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq.
During the ongoing war, the pretexts of the United States were changing as needed, as were their alliances – a time that drew up plans to confront the former Soviet Union in order to prevent it from supposedly seizing oil wells in the Gulf.
At times, it supports extremists in Afghanistan to fight communism and provides a suitable environment for the emergence of al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups.
Once again, US supported Iraq in his war against Iran, and then fought against Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait, all of which enabled the United States to dominate the Gulf region through military bases distributed throughout the region.
After the Cold War, US leaders believed that the American era had begun. And that the behavior and way of thinking of others must change, and the American vanity grew dramatically, and the American vanity grew dramatically, the disaster of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 was the result, which led to a change in the balance of power in the region, created the environment for the growth of terrorism and extremism in the region, but turned the magic on the magician, The United States was forced to withdraw from Iraq after suffering heavy casualties.
The United States did not learn from its mistake but expanded its war in the region using drones and NGOs (Avaz – Creative Commons – and other civil society organizations) – so began the “creative chaos” that characterized the Arab Spring Malfunctioning entire area system .
But what are the US goals in the region? In fact, the United States seeks to achieve several objectives, including:
– Strengthen its presence and domination over the Middle East and limit the expansion of Russian and Chinese influence in the region
– Containing and weakening Iran as a prelude to regime change , as the Iran’s role in the region worries the United States and Israel, therefore, the US strategic thinkers see growing Iranian-Russian relations as a threat to US interests in the Middle East and Central Asia.
– Pressure on China – which depends on Gulf oil – Turmoil and instability in the region threatens the stability of oil prices and poses a real challenge to China
– Protecting Israel
– Limit the expansion of China’s Belt and Road Initiative in the Middle East – Investment needs stability and security.
On the other hand, Russia is seeking to expand its influence, as it is trying to eliminate the terrorist groups in the region, being a threat to the Russian Federation itself, and at the same time the regional powers, such as Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia, seeks to achieve gains in the region by supporting this party Or that, so the picture seems very complex and summarizes the global conflict at this stage.
In any case, the turmoil in Lebanon and Iraq was a new factor in this conflict, as the United States seeks to exploit this movement – which seemed rightly demanded – to change the balance in Lebanon and Iraq, ie to weaken and encircle Hezbollah in Lebanon and weaken the Iranian influence in Iraq, The United States uses the same organizations (white helmets, creative commons, and media) to incite and to change the course of demonstrations and could lead to violent conflict.
It is a multilayered conflict, but the United States has realized that has lost its stake in Syria, where the Syrian government has little left to liberate all areas from terrorism and from the US and Turkish occupation – (which steals Syrian oil in the east) – and that means changing the geopolitical balance in the region. may lead to drew a new map of influence, which prompted the United States to tense the situation in Lebanon and Iraq again.
(The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of World Geostrategic Insights)
Image Credit: George Ourfalian/Agence France-Presse