In his article for Al Arabiya, Abdulrahman al-Rashed, former General Manager of Al Arabiya News Channel and former editor-in-chief of Asharq al-Awsat, writes about the recent developments, that include:
• The former Yemeni president announced his dissent from his former Houthi ally on Yemeni television.
• The former Egyptian prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, announcemed his decision to return to Egypt and run for elections on Al Jazeera
• Yemeni President Saleh was killed by Houthi rebels.
• Shafiq had a subsequent change of mind about running for office.
• US President Trump’s announces the transfer of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and signs of the decision in a ceremony that angers millions of Arabs.
• Israel bombs Iranian and Syrian military centers near Damascus, and the United States threatens Qassim Soleimani, the Iranian commander in Iraq.
• Simultaneously, Russia declares that it has destroyed ISIS in Syria.
• Meanwhile, the Gulf region is experiencing a serious internal crisis, at the summit of the Cooperation Council in Kuwait.
Palestine and Jerusalem are being used as a bargaining chip, according to al-Rashed. The Iranians, via Hezbollah, exert pressure on Israel and the West to enable their presence. He alleges that the biggest enemy of the Palestinian cause, after Israel, is Iran, writing, “I do not say this as a result of our dispute with Tehran, but because we see how the region has been turned into states under Iranian domination or preoccupied with defending itself from the threats of Tehran and its proxies.”
Arabs who used to believe the Iranian claims are now fed up with it, according to al-Rashed, and Iran is now trying to restore its image based on Qatari propaganda, and on Sunni religious groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood.
He calls the Palestinians the losers in these conflicts, saying, “Whenever a front is opened, it is at the expense of the Palestinian cause, because no one is able to put political pressure without endangering its existence in the related conflict.”
