 On March 28, Israel hosted representatives of the UAE, Morocco, Paran, and Egypt, along with US officials in what was a summit of key allies amid changing dynamics in West Asia. The summit was an attempt to strengthen the coordination between US allies in the region, even as the Ukraine war has led to fresh tensions. How do we see this summit in the context of the Abraham Accords of 2020 and recent developments? The Abraham Accords are really just Israel and an alliance of autocrats. I mean, what does it say about you when these are your allies? What does it say about the US when these are its allies? You know, it's an alliance of the losing side of history. You have one side, you have on one side that, but then you have a transnational alliance on the other side that defeated al-Qaeda in Iraq and Syria defeated ISIS. The worded Israeli plans for Lebanon and Gaza. You have this axis of resistance, as it's called, stretching from Lebanon to Syria to Iraq to Iran to Yemen and supporting their brothers in Palestine without this alliance, this axis of resistance. Hamas wouldn't be able to resist for a day. And Palestinians would be reduced to begging for a little more than fishing rights from the Israelis or negotiating for a few more day laborers to work for their Israeli masters, if you will. Instead, you have an alliance that has millions of people behind it, mobilized, tested in the battlefield, you know, carrying with them an ideology seeking to establish sovereignty and independence. It's really the opposite of the GCC model of dictatorships that are dependent on America or, you know, a settler colonial state like Israel, which understands that it can never integrate into the region so it has no recourse, but to ally with monarchies and dictators rather than with the people of the region. You know, all of them understand that the US can no longer impose its hegemony on the region the way it used to, not because the US doesn't want to, not because the US has abandoned its imperialist ideology, but because it failed. Its projects were defeated in Afghanistan and Iraq. It was pushed back and meanwhile states like Turkey and Iran and Russia and China are rising powers and they're asserting themselves and demanding their place at the table. So the dependencies, those countries who need America to exist, they're getting nervous and that's why they're forming this alliance. Or maybe I should say that's why they're pushing further for this alliance. And then, you know, meanwhile you see the GCC countries have injected something like $22 billion into Egypt at a summit there that was ahead of this summit in Israel. You know, there's just summits all over the place. The Iraqis met with the Emiratis, the Egyptians met with the Emiratis and the Israelis, all the summiting going on, but the GCC states have also injected all this, these billions of dollars into Egypt to basically prevent it from collapsing due to the lack of wheat from the crisis in Ukraine and Russia. So you really do see these countries that are dependent on the US starting to depend on each other. And that'll go only get them so far. And then something else to note about this summit that took place in Israel is that there was no Palestinian representation whatsoever, it was completely absent. And that really speaks to the idea of calling this, you know, some sort of peace, calling these Abraham Accords some sort of peace because at the end of the day it leaves the Palestinians out. There was never any real problem between these GCC countries and the Israelis, they were never at war. So it's this attempt at normalization in the region without having to actually do anything about the real problem in the region which is the ongoing settler colonialism against Palestinians. And of course, the representation of American imperialism through these various client states. Iran was a key focus of these talks. This comes at a time when there has been progress in negotiations on the nuclear deal. Meanwhile, some of the Gulf monarchies have also been engaging with Iran while Israel continues to see it as an existential threat. What has been the role of Iran as far as these countries are concerned? So the situation between the GCC countries and Iran specifically, part of this summit of course and this Abraham Accords is forming a coalition and anti-Iran coalition that can stand up against that axis of resistance that Iran is at the helm of across the region. So the UAE, I think, you know, and the Saudis have realized, especially because the Houthis are able to continue to hit their countries and actually do damage, that they're not as strong as they think that spending billions of dollars on weapons systems and lobbying isn't necessarily going to give you the military might you need to take on an adversary, particularly, I mean, if you can't even take on the Houthis, which are, you know, oftentimes are using homemade rockets and homemade drones, then how on earth would you be able to take on a country like Iran that actually has, you know, fighting forces who are capable, who are trained well, who actually have like a lot of experience over the last decade in fighting and warfare. So that is part of the reason that they're cozying up so much to the Israelis as in an effort to like feel protected against Iran. But that said, what's also happening is there is a slight retreat of America from the region, not because it wants to, but because it's been defeated in many cases, its policies have been defeated in many parts of the region. And also the US is looking or was looking to turn its attention towards China. And, you know, that would require moving resources away from the Middle East and towards Asia, towards China. And in that sense, these countries are forced to actually deal with Iran. If they don't have the US backing them and supporting every little thing they do. And if they're also watching and seeing the US left Afghanistan, left its allies high and dry in Afghanistan. And also they're also watching what's happening in Ukraine. They're seeing that NATO, despite all its rhetoric has actually not doing anything to help Ukraine. It's kind of standing by and watching. Yeah, it's giving weapons to the Ukrainians to fight and die against Russia. But it's, you know, we have NATO leaders and Western leaders repeatedly saying that they're not going to do no fly zone. And they're not gonna do much more than what they're doing now to support Ukraine because they don't wanna war with Russia. So if you're a GCC country, if you're Saudi Arabia or the Emiratis and you see the US abandoning its allies, if you will, then it's gonna force you to make some decisions about how you're gonna deal with your neighbor if the US isn't gonna help you. And that's partly what's led to these countries sitting down and talking with the Iranians through back channels. And this is part of the reason why, you know, many people across the region believe that once the US is out of the region, it'll actually force everybody to deal with each other on a different footing. And the US imperialism in the region actually ends up encouraging countries like Saudi Arabia or the Emiratis to take a hard line. So the more the US retreats from the region, I think you're gonna see a lot of these countries find ways to deal with each other that are maybe less violent than otherwise would be. The Israeli summit was not the only recent meeting on the future of the region. Saudi Arabia also hosted a meeting of parties in the war in Yemen. However, the Houthis did not attend the meeting. There have been a number of developments in Yemen. On the one hand, the Houthis and the Saudi-led Alliance both announced ceasefires. But this came after a strike by the Houthis in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. How do we see the summit in the context of these developments? So the halting of violence in Yemen is a positive development, of course. You know, this comes back to the Saudis are actually angry at the US, if you can believe it or not, for not supporting them enough against the Houthis. And then meanwhile, the Houthis have really shown us how much asymmetrical warfare has evolved. I mean, when a non-state actor that once hid in Yemen's most inhospitable mountains can punish the mighty and arrogant Saudis and Emiratis for their war on Yemen and take away the one thing both countries guaranteed their people in Western backers and that is stability by repeatedly hitting them with rockets, it really shows you the power of asymmetric warfare. You know, let's not forget the ceasefire announcement came after a wave of Houthi drone and missile attacks that hit targets across Saudi Arabia, including an oil plant. So hitting Saudi Arabia's, you know, so-called stability and safety but also hitting Saudi Arabia economically. And of course, this was preceded and followed with Saudi attacks on Yemen, including civilian targets as well as the ongoing air, land and sea blockade that has caused famine conditions in Yemen. You know, the mainstream media also has been crediting UN envoys for the ceasefire, but really the UN envoy didn't play a role in negotiating the ceasefire, which is as usual. You know, just as UN envoys have failed in Yemen in the past and failed in Syria and failed in Libya. I mean, and this should really start a conversation about how useless are these UN special envoy missions. Instead, it seems that the ceasefire is actually due to a mix of unilateral GCC and Houthi moves that maybe in some cases coordinated. Also, of course, coinciding with Ramadan, which offers a religious excuse for a ceasefire that allows both sides in a way to save face.