Even an attack on Islam’s holiest city has not been enough for a united response by Middle Eastern states to the Iranian axis, Bahraini political analyst Dr. Ahmed Alkhuzaie told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia said its air defenses had shot down a Houthi drone south of Mecca.
Middle Eastern states have been too dysfunctional for years, and they were unable to respond to the scale of the threats posed by the Iranian axis, Alkhuzaie said.
After choosing their political “ideology over sustainability and even religion,” only Morocco and Jordan have been able to align themselves with the Gulf states, he said.
Lebanon is preoccupied with reasserting sovereignty domestically, Egypt has been focused on its financial difficulties and other regional concerns, and countries such as Algeria have other allegiances to consider, particularly after severing diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates last week, he added.
Given the lack of regional alignment, Alkhuzaie predicted further reconfiguring of alliances across the region, such as the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement signed by Riyadh, Islamabad, and Ankara last month.
“I can see some Arab nations getting closer to Israel [and] being pragmatic enough to serve the main purpose that is sovereignty over mediocrity,” he said.
Growing hopes of expansion of Abraham Accords
Despite once promising that it would be the last country to normalize relations with Israel, there are growing hopes that Kuwait may join the Abraham Accords.
Another country, possibly Kuwait, could join the accords within four to six months, Israeli Ambassador to the UAE Yossi Shelley told KAN News on Tuesday.
In 2021, however, Kuwait amended its Israel boycott law and added more punitive measures against those who engage socially or economically with Israeli citizens or entities.
The Houthi attack against Mecca, even though it was dismissed by its spokesperson Yahya Saree, has demonstrated to Muslims across the region that “this is not a religious war as Iran is portraying it,” Alkhuzaie said.
The attack on the birthplace of the prophet Muhammad and the home of the Kaaba – the center of Islam’s most important mosque – clearly communicated that neither the Houthis nor Iran “care about religion as they advertise,” he said.
With this gap in narrative and action clearly visible, Alkhuzaie said it was predictable that the Houthis would deny responsibility for the attack. Nevertheless, the Houthis would blame Israel for the attack as a way to incite further animosity and justify the axis’s attacks against American assets, he said.