The Middle East Geopolitics and the Regional Powers

In a region characterized by a complicated geopolitical reality along with a geopolitical split and struggle, which includes a significant religious dimension, the regional powers try hard to find significant and influential regional roles. Then, there is a hard endeavor by the powers in the Middle East to achieve and affirm a status of 'regional power,' and achieve, in this regard, a regional and international recognition of this status in a region has plenty of international roles and a key presence of the leading international powers, as a region of key and strategic international importance.

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Arab powers have somewhat failed to play key regional roles yet, but nevertheless there are rising roles and influences by Egypt and Saudi Arabia. In fact, the Arab region is subject to some key and influential regional roles and sometimes interventions by some non-Arab regional powers. Those roles and their consequent effects resulted in a geopolitical division in the Arab region and a regional penetration and intervention in some key Arab issues and countries.

Therefore, the question of building a unified Arab block defining a mutual comprehensive concept of Arab national interest and security is something in question. Is this regard, the most achievable realistic objective, for now, is to form an Arab camp defending the agreed-upon Arab interests and particularly Arab countries and questions from the current regional interventions, and eventually to affirm the position and role of this Arab camp in the Middle East in front of the regional rivals and adversaries. This task is somewhat what the Egyptian-Saudi Arabian alliance is apparently undertaking at present. This effort is actually forming the Arab moderate pragmatic camp in front of the extremist and radical camp led by Iran that is penetrating the Arab region and the Arab countries.

The leading moderate Arab powers' efforts in this regard are coming in very difficult regional realities, as Iranian influence reaches some parts of the Arab Gulf system through Qatar in particular, and also reaches the eastern Mediterranean through Hezbullah in Lebanon, the Baath-dominated Syria and lately the Hamas-dominated Gaza strip. Those actually constitute the most important Iranian penetration of the Arab region and the Arab system.

As a result, Iran is a key and influential regional player at this stage, as it leads its own regional camp, and forms what I call the Middle East totalitarian axis, and spreads its influence in some key parts of the region between the Gulf and Mediterranean. In addition, besides Iran there are the regionally rising Turkey and Israel, which is still attached to the U.S. umbrella more than having a regional role of its own, while it is still unwilling to settle the Palestinian question.

Turkey in the latest few years tried hard to find an important role in the region, after decades it was occupied with its many problems with its neighbors. Turkey so far tries to keep itself away from the confronting forming regional camps, as it wants a regional role completely of its own, the matter that is in question, in my opinion.

However, the current geopolitical situation and struggle in the Middle East lacks Iraq, which is the direction of all regional powers' attention that Iraq is able after a while, in the next years, to change the geopolitics of the Middle East.