Beirut – In an unprecedented move, the Kingdom’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has succeeded in reversing the course of history at a fateful moment for the region. He has embraced Syria and freed it from sanctions, slowed Washington’s momentum through Israeli incitement against Iran, and opened the door to a different future based on a just solution to the Palestinian issue. US President Donald Trump’s visit to the Kingdom is only the beginning.
The geopolitical landscape in the region was unusual before the US president’s historic visit to Saudi Arabia, and it will be very different afterward and for an unknown period. The meetings, positions, and deals that took place during that visit are changing the face of the region, but not in the way Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had wanted since October 7, 2023. This is evidenced by the separate agreements that preceded and accompanied Trump’s visit, between Trump and the Houthis in Yemen on May 6 (a halt to US airstrikes in exchange for a halt to targeting ships in the Red Sea), and between him and Hamas on May 11 (the release of Israeli-American prisoner Idan Alexander, with the aim of complicating Israel’s political and field position and opening a channel of dialogue with Washington), all without coordination with Netanyahu and independently of him.
Even lifting sanctions on Syria and receiving Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Riyadh under Saudi auspices naturally contradicts Israel’s declared plan to partition Syria, which would weaken the central government and plunge Syria into chaos for years to come.
Will those affected by Trump’s attack on the region, the heart of the world, sit idly by?
Israel on the spectator chairs
Israel as a whole was outside the path of history in those crucial days, sitting on the sidelines as history celebrated, not at the table of its creators. This is an unprecedented achievement for Arabs and Muslims. But will those harmed by Trump’s assault on the region, the heart of the world, sit idly by? Have they run out of resources and means?
To review the general geopolitical situation, it is necessary to examine the Syrian scene. Within its vital geography, contested by countries near and far, lies the entire story, and from it shines a hopeful future.
While it’s true that Hamas’s attack on the Gaza Strip opened the floodgates of change, and that Netanyahu’s reckless response weakened the party in Lebanon and weakened Assad’s grip in Syria, Ahmad al-Sharaa succeeded in seizing the opportunity. The liberation of Syria was the most significant strategic event in years. With the liberation of Damascus, a new balance of power was established, and the map of the conflict was drawn between three camps:
1- The axis of resistance between Tehran and Sana’a, whose conditions have seriously deteriorated.
2- The Israeli axis, which began accumulating profits in the hope of achieving security and military dominance over the entire Middle East region, including Iran, Egypt, Turkey, and Yemen.
3- The rising Arab axis, led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which embraced Syria under the leadership of Ahmed Al-Sharaa, seeing it as a golden opportunity for stability and development in the heart of the former Iranian axis, thus expanding the vital economic and security sphere of the Arabian Peninsula, and strengthening the Arab position in the context of a just solution to the Palestinian issue, far from the narrative of comprehensive displacement and total liquidation, which only aims to hold the entire region hostage for long, dark decades.
The Middle East is indeed changing, but without Netanyahu, and contrary to his expansionist vision.
Who started the Asian War?
Just two days before Trump’s visit, Asia and the world were spared the threat of an all-out war between India and Pakistan, two nuclear-armed states. The US president was the one who stopped it, in his own way, which angered Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, because the end came at the best time for Pakistan, not India. While the world was preoccupied with the skills of the Pakistani pilots who thwarted the major Indian air attack on the first day, everyone forgot two essential questions: Who lit the fuse? Was it the loyal Pakistani groups or an unknown group with intelligence penetration? And what extinguished it? Was it the fear of the war escalating into a nuclear conflict, or was it Trump’s desire to ensure the success of his legendary trip to Saudi Arabia?
More importantly, what was the purpose of igniting a major regional war in Asia just days before Trump’s visit to Riyadh, given that whoever lit the fuse intended to sabotage the decisions to be issued in Riyadh, which were extremely important and of strategic significance?
Raising this question in itself reveals the magnitude of the event and its geopolitical implications, which are already changing the face of the region. Was Pakistan behind the recent tensions, fearing a shift in its role after Iran’s nuclear program was curbed in the upcoming agreement with Washington, while Israel has been urging Pakistan to disarm its nuclear program for many years?
But Pakistan is not among the countries reckless enough to ignite an asymmetric war with India, highlighting the danger of its nuclear weapons. Was Israel, with its security breaches, behind the outbreak of war by targeting Indian tourists in Kashmir, to achieve its subversive goals in the region? Is there an intersection between Israeli and Iranian interests in this Asian space, given the negative repercussions of a war in Asia on Trump’s regional agenda? Were those who fired the shots in Kashmir individuals affiliated with independent jihadist groups seeking to reshuffle the strategic cards? All of these are legitimate questions that may not yield conclusive answers.
US President Donald Trump’s visit to the Kingdom is just the beginning.
The Middle East is changing
The Middle East is indeed changing, but without Netanyahu, and contrary to his expansionist vision, which he and his far-right comrades—all of them right-wing after the evaporation of the left—have been so vocal about since the “Al-Aqsa Intifada.” But Netanyahu, who is waging an endless war in the Gaza Strip, had to stay out of the action, not only because he has no role to play, but also because of his personal belief that he is the true architect of this history, through his war on Gaza and Lebanon, extending to Syria, and his contribution to weakening and toppling Assad.
But the problem with Netanyahu’s strategic vision is that it is inherently incompatible with American or Arab-Islamic interests. Netanyahu wants to bomb Iran, divide Syria, liquidate the Palestinian cause, and empty Palestine of its Palestinian population, starting with Gaza. He then seeks to impose normalization on the entire Arab world without any political compensation and without any commitment to establishing a Palestinian state on some part of historic Palestine.
Hisham Aliwan 2025-05-16
To follow the writer on X: @HishamAlaywan64
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