 The recent crisis in Ukraine and the attack by Russian forces has led to questions emerging on the future of the world order. Analysts have predicted that we could be seeing a new realignment based on what happens in Ukraine. A key area of contestation is West Asia, where countries have traditionally been allies with the United States. However, over the past few years, the situation has grown more complex and Russia has become a vital player in the region. This extends to even countries such as the United Arab Emirates, a close associate of the U.S. Rania Khalik of Breakthrough News explains the dynamics of the region from the prism of responses by various countries to recent developments. I think we can evaluate the Russian relationship with a lot of these countries in the Middle East and West Asia by the response from these countries and I mean there isn't one response from the region. It's very country dependent obviously, but this region has been I think so invaded and bombed and made into refugees and destabilized by the West and NATO for so long that it's not really seen as anything particularly shocking or unique anymore in terms of like one country invading or bombing another, aside from the fact that it's a bit odd to see it happen in Europe, which is seen as a place of stability where people escape to not from. But I will say there's also some people that have I would say a certain level of respect for Russia's boldness and then let me explain what I mean by that. America is the world's hegemon and Russia is standing up to it. That's how a certain segment of people in the region see it and it's not to really justify what Russia is doing or anything, but it's just to point out that there is a certain level of admiration for the Russians going against the all powerful US Empire and they're all powerful NATO alliance, you know, some do go as far as justifying it from the point of view of the global south like if a whole thing American or NATO expansion of feeling gratified that perhaps a multipolar or non-polar world is emerging and which US freedom of action is finally being constrained. So that's like one segment of people across the region see it that way. But then, you know, if you look at the air of media, the Russian perspective is actually more featured pretty much across the board than in Western media. And they're not blindly like parroting the Western perspective, which you may have seen years ago. And I think that really speaks to something deeper going on as most media in this region is soft powered, state affiliated. So it speaks to, I think, a changing world order. Whereas in the past, you would see American client states in the region and their media, the various media affiliates take the US side without question. You see much more of what looks like a balancing act, act that speaks to the importance of Russia as a great power on the global stage. And this is the result of, like I mentioned, growing multi polarity where in the developing world, especially with respect to China and Russia, these countries are viewed as being countries that are powerful just like the US. And so that's why you even see what are some US partners or client states in the Middle East, they seem to be taking Russia side. For example, of course, not taking Russia side, at least not taking a side. And one example, I think has been so far, the UAE, the United Arab Emirates. You know, it's a major US military ally, somebody even called a client state. And the UAE foreign minister had spoken to the Russian foreign minister just before the Russians invaded Ukraine. And the official statement from the UAE didn't mention Ukraine, but it really stressed the strength of the UAE and Russian relationship. And after the invasion, there was a phone call with the US Secretary of State and the Emirati foreign minister discussing the Russian attack with the Emirati, the Emiratis didn't really make a statement in support or against. And of course that could change, but the point is in the beginning they're playing a balancing act and Qatar, another major US military partner also didn't condemn the Russians and instead called on both the Russians and the Ukrainians to exercise restraint. This is another balancing act. And then interestingly, you see Saudi Arabia has actually so far remained hands off, you know, aside from warning Saudi citizens to leave Ukraine. They haven't said anything. And this is also after the Saudis refused an American request to raise oil production as the crisis escalated. And then we go to Israel, right, which is, of course, also in the Middle East. And at first, the Israelis, this is a country that literally only exists the way it does because of American weapons funding. And I mean, this is a client state of the US and it refrained from even naming Russia and its statements about Ukraine until recently, when Israeli Foreign Ministry, a year like he was kind of pushed to denounce Moscow's what they called serious violation of the international order. But also what hasn't got as much attention is Israel blocked the US from sending iron dome systems to Ukraine, or at least as reportedly happened. And, you know, this is a joint Israeli US project. So both sides have to agree on on sales of it. And the Israelis blocked it. And Israel might all, you know, Israel might be a client state of the US, but it has a close relationship with Russia and a huge Russian population, as well as a huge Ukrainian population. In fact, the Ukrainian oligarch who back to Linsky's rise to power is currently based in Israel. But that's the size of the point. But then you have Turkey, which is a NATO ally, which has been a bit stronger, obviously. And it's in the way it's talked about Russia. It's demanded that the Russians stop in their invasion, called the operation of grave violation of human rights and a serious threat to global security. So this is actually, but, you know, Turkey is actually kind of stands out here because, again, country to country, even Egypt, Egypt, which exports, you know, Egypt exports most of its wheat from Russia or imports most of its wheat from Russia, but it's propped up by US military aid, as we know. And so all we saw from Egypt, though, was an expression of concern. That's it. Lebanon criticized the Russian invasion, but like Syria, it depends on wheat from Russia and Ukraine. So it's not doing too much. The Syrians have naturally fully embraced the Russian position. And Syria is the location of strategic Russian air and naval bases that have increased in importance now, actually, with this conflict in allowing Russia to have a position behind NATO enemy lines and without concern over Turkey closing closing its its its areas to Russian ships. But also in an unsurprisingly, you have Iran, which is a US rival blaming Western provocations for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. And, you know, the reason I'm going through country to country here is you see a pattern of there's either countries that are pretty much trying to stay neutral because they don't want to upset either side because they want a good relationship with both the US and Russia or countries like Iran and Syria, which obviously see the US as an adversary and are going to side with Russia for reasons related to their own geostrategic interests. But the point is that it really does. It really is emblematic, I think, of a shift in the international world order right now, where, yes, the US remains the dominant power and it remains a superpower or the superpower. But it's increasingly moving into a world where China and Russia are also important powers as well. And this is the multipolar world that America has been terrified of. And I think the Middle East is an alone year. I think if you look at if you look at Africa or if you look at Latin America, you'll see a similar dynamic at play where even allies of the United States, very close allies of the United States are playing this balancing act of trying to maintain a good relationship with both Russia and the US and Europe. What were the circumstances through which Russia, which is quite weak in the 90s and even early 2000s, became a major player in West Asia? Its alliance with Syria and Iran was definitely a key moment. What other factors have played a role in this process? You know, I think that the Russian sort of rise to international prominence in terms of its ability to project power and to be kind of respected as a world power starts after Iraq and Libya were these utter failures and the Russians were sick of standing by and watching the US and pose its will on other countries and not just from like the moral perspective, but the moral perspective of also hurting Russian and European security. These wars that the US has inflicted and posed launched against countries, particularly in the Middle East, have created instability, not just in the Middle East, but around the world and particularly in Europe and across and in countries around Russia as well. It's created more and more of these failed state zones where you have the rise of these extremist fundamentalist groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS in places that they didn't used to exist, which threatened Europe and threatened Russia as well by launching attacks in these countries quite regularly following the collapse of states the US overthrew. So I think that that one of the big turning points in Russia and I don't mean to center the Middle East here, but I think the issue of Syria was one of the big turning points in making Russia into a bigger power because Syria was was like the last it was like Libya was last drop. And then the US tried to do one of these regime change wars in Syria by arming and funding a collection of Salafi jihadist groups to collapse the Syrian state. Now, Syria is a longtime ally of the Russians and the Soviet Union, for that matter. And so the Russians came to help Syria and protect the Syrian government from state collapse with the hands of these Salafi jihadist groups that were being both funded, armed and enabled by the United States and its local allies and Russia succeeded. Obviously, like the war in Syria has been completely devastating. It's not to justify what Russians and the Syrians did in Syria. But it's just to say that they prevented the US project of overthrowing the Syrian government and collapsing the state to impose a more US friendly regime on that country in order to prevent the kind of security vacuum that we saw in Iraq and Libya. That, like I said, spilled over into Europe. And I think this is this is really when Russia, like on the international stage, becomes a bigger player because it stood up to the US and it succeeded. And I think it's in a lot in the eyes of a lot of people in the region, whether they like Russia or hate Russia or whether they're neutral, is when they also saw, oh, wow, like the US isn't the one in charge everywhere all the time anymore that gets to impose its will. There are other players, there's another player that can actually prevent the US from imposing its interests on this region. And so I think that that's definitely played a role in shaping perceptions at least in this region and maybe in other regions as well of Russia's power. And it also really made Russia look a lot militarily stronger than people might have thought it was. And now they're seeing that play out again in Ukraine.