A Reshaped Middle East

(MENAFN- Daily News Egypt) November 2017 has seen dramatic developments in the Middle East. For the last few months, indications have been that the region has finally gained the upper hand in its three year war against the self-styled 'Islamic State' (referred to as Daesh or ISIS) after the liberation of both Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria, the capital of the so-called 'Islamic State.'

In Iraq, the central government has demonstrated enough political will to project its authority throughout Iraq in the context of the Iraqi constitution. It has successfully, and wisely, dealt with the Kurdistan referendum of September 25, 2017, and forced Massoud Barzani, president of the Iraqi Kurdistan, to beat a retreat from announcing an independent Kurdistan.

In Syria, the government of President Bashar al Assad has been regaining a steady control over Syrian territories with the help of Russia and Iran.

With these successes, the Middle East turned a very destructive page in its modern history, and it seemed that a post–Daesh era was about to set to the relief of the parties concerned. The post-Daesh era would have meant that the policies and the alliances borne out of these failed policies that characterized the last seven years would come to an end, and that a new vision, or, at the very least, new approaches would be adopted by the main belligerents, to deal with the disastrous consequences of those years that have almost seen the near disintegration of major Arab powers.

November 4, 2017 took everyone by surprise. It was an irrefutable proof that the Saudi-Iranian confrontation – that was one of the main drivers for the mayhem in the Middle East in the last few years – is here to stay, and with vehemence, as if the fight against Daesh had put under the carpet the confrontation by proxies be it in Lebanon, Syria, or Yemen.

The Saudis, after they had received the Iraqi prime minister and decided to return their ambassador to Baghdad, opened up a new front against Iran in Lebanon. They invited the Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Al-Hariri to Saudi Arabia and less than twenty four hours upon his arrival, he read a letter of resignation from his post, accusing Hezbollah of creating 'a state within a state' in his home country, and that Iran is interfering in the domestic affairs of various Arab governments. What was more surprising in his speech was his promise to 'cut' Iranian influence in the Middle East. The same day, and according to official Saudi sources, the Riyadh International Airport was targeted by a ballistic missile from the northern part of Yemen populated by the Houthis, Yemen's Shiites.

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