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How do Arab countries position themselves in the conflict between Israel and Hamas?
Jordan: A balancing act
In Jordan, the monarchy has to constantly strike a balance. One in five people in Jordan, including the queen, are Palestinian. Support for a Palestinian state and equal rights is a desire of many locals, and the country’s leaders often speak publicly about this. But Jordan is also close to Israel and the United States, which may exceed many locals’ expectations, experts say. In 1994, Jordan signed a peace agreement with Israel. The two countries cooperate on security-related issues, such as the security of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
In 2021, the United States and Jordan signed a defense cooperation agreement that allows U.S. troops, vehicles and aircraft to enter and move freely through Jordan. In April, Jordan allegedly helped shoot down an Iranian missile that was flying through its airspace toward Israel, which many locals saw as a betrayal. Jordan also maintains diplomatic relations with Iran, but the attitude is often cool. Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi recently visited Iran to discuss escalating tensions in the region, which was one of the rare visits.
Neighboring Egypt, under the authoritarian rule of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, has also had to carefully balance its relationship with Israel. Since signing a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, “Egypt has sought to balance its national interests, particularly those related to insecurity in the Sinai Peninsula, with support for the Palestinian cause,” according to a May report by the International Crisis Group. “Specifically, this effort has meant rejecting any direct responsibility for the plight of the people of Gaza and supporting efforts to reach a diplomatic solution based on a two-state solution.”
The topics of security and economic cooperation with Israel are a common part of the relationship between the two countries. Before the Gaza conflict began, Egypt was in charge of the Gaza-Egypt Rafah crossing. Israel’s request for permission to control the area is a problem for Egypt, and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza threatens to spread to Egyptian territory. The Egyptian government previously opposed Hamas, seeing it as an Islamist organization and a threat to it, but recently, this attitude has changed, and Egypt has played an important role in ceasefire negotiations. Egypt’s relations with Iran have also improved since 2023, but have also tended to be cold.
Lebanon: Hezbollah
Lebanon is a parliamentary democracy that has itself been mired in a severe political and economic crisis in recent years. The country has been without an elected government since 2020 and is facing one of the world’s worst crises. Prior to this, the Lebanese government had been composed of representatives of the country’s many different religious and ethnic groups.
Hezbollah’s political wing represents the interests of Shia Muslims and plays a major role in Lebanon’s governance. He must balance his interests with those of other powerful groups, including Lebanese Christians, Sunni Muslims and Druze. But Hezbollah’s military wing is another story. It is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and several European countries and is considered better equipped and organized than Lebanon’s own army. Many Lebanese and local politicians do not necessarily want Hezbollah to start a larger war with Israel. But Lebanese politicians also know that they have little control over Hezbollah, which is a powerful player in the so-called “resistance axis,” a loose alliance of militant groups backed by Iran that oppose Israel and the United States.
Iran-backed Syria
Syria has considered itself to be at war with its neighbor since Israel was founded in 1948. There have been frequent exchanges of fire between the two sides, although these have been largely considered symbolic. Today, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has been in power thanks to the military support Iran has provided him during the country’s 13-year civil war. This also explains the growing number of pro-Iranian militias in Syria, including members of Hezbollah and other Iraqis. This has led to increasing Israeli attacks since 2017 and further escalated since the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7. In April, Israel launched an attack on an Iranian diplomatic residence in the Syrian capital Damascus, killing a senior Iranian commander, triggering Iranian retaliation.
Iraq: Opposition to foreign interference
Experts say Iraq does not recognize Israel, and although the current Iraqi government, which is dominated by Shiite Muslim politicians, has moved closer to Iran over the past decade, the Palestinian issue crosses religious lines. There are many armed groups in Iraq that also belong to Iran’s “resistance axis.” These groups have previously attacked US bases in Iraq with missiles and have also tried to attack Israel, but mostly failed. The United States retaliated against them. The Iraqi government and its security forces tend to either tolerate these groups or have little contact with them. “Iraq has been forced to balance the relationship between the United States and Iran,” Maxine Shamari, a scholar at the Brookings Institution, a Washington policy think tank, said recently.
“This is nothing new for Iraqi leaders. There are clear boundaries in Baghdad’s relations with Washington, especially when it comes to Iraq’s stance towards Israel… Iraq has always supported the Palestinian cause and its stance in the current conflict has not been influenced by Iran’s support for Hamas.”
Yemen: It’s all about the Houthis
Due to the civil war, Yemen is divided between the internationally recognized government in Aden in southern Yemen and the Houthi rebel group in northern Yemen. Neither side recognizes Israel. Yemen’s neighbor Saudi Arabia had previously led a coalition to fight the Houthis, but the situation has been relatively calm since a ceasefire agreement was signed in early 2022. The Houthis are also seen as part of the “resistance axis.” They support Hamas, claim that Israel is a destabilizing force in the Middle East, and oppose the presence of the United States in the region. In November last year, they began firing rockets at Israel and blocking sea traffic in support of Hamas.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar: pragmatic and wealthy
Meanwhile, the Gulf Arab despotic monarchies have taken a more pragmatic approach to the current conflict. They see Iran as an enemy and have long been committed to normalizing relations with Israel. In 2020, the UAE and Bahrain signed the so-called Abraham Accords, establishing diplomatic ties with Israel. Saudi Arabia appears to be the next country to take this step.
But Qatar is more of a mediation ground. It has avoided normalizing relations with Israel but has actually had economic ties with it since the 1990s, and because the political wing of Hamas is also based in Qatar, the country played an important role in ceasefire negotiations. /DW
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