I think that this thread stands on its own, as it puts the war in the MENA in context, and it is becoming very clear that World War III is about to enter a “hot” stage, given the West’s terminal decline, and the fact that the conflict between the West and the Resistance in the MENA is part of the bigger war between the West and the Rest (Global North vs. Global South). The Global South is about to win decisively, so the West has no choice but to “go out with a bang,” and is going all out on front after front. And the MENA is but the lynchpin of all this.
The MENA is at the centre of the global maelstrom, in terms of trade, economics, and many other factors, being a vital source of energy and a node or “bridge” between East and West, along with the Central-Asian “Earth-Island” and the Caucasus. Everything that is happening globally is connected to the MENA, so the ongoing war is drawing the superpowers into the fray, with the multipolar Global South aligning with the Resistance against the West’s (Global North’s) unipolar Golden Billion. So the conflict in the MENA is like a singularity that ties together all other fronts.
If the MENA blows up, the world does—on several fronts at once, even beyond the MENA.
Here’s what we see:
A common interest among stakeholders in evicting NATO’s forces from Mesopotamia, where the U.S., Israel, and Saudi Arabia have used the secessionist Kurds (in Syria the SDF, which is linked to the PKK/PYD via the YPG/YPJ) and their Wahhabi–Salafi allies, e.g., al-Qaida and ISIS, to weaken not just Iran and its allies, but also Russia and especially China, along with an increasingly-independent Turkey. Just as the Resistance prepares to attack NATO’s regional forces, Turkey is already beginning an offensive against the SDF, while Syria‘s Assad has remained ominously quiet, in light of improving Syria–Turkey ties in the background, whose context is the ongoing, Russian-and-Chinese-mediated Turkish–Iranian–Azerbaijani rapprochement in the face of a common Western threat. The Resistance, Iran, Russia, China, Syria, and Turkey have a common interest in opposing NATO’s continuing occupation of eastern Syria and portions of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Ongoing instability in the MENA, along with the implementation of the Abraham Accords, is a distinct threat to Chinese economic interests, including the BRI. The long-term U.S. military buildup in the Pacific complements the Western military buildup in the MENA as part of an attempt to contain China and split the ongoing Sino-Russian entente. Right now there is a steadily-increasing risk of armed conflict breaking out in the South China Sea, reflecting China’s frustration with the West and in part as a response to Western actions in the MENA. The South China Sea, like Ukraine and the MENA, is yet another front in the opening stages of World War III. Additionally, conflict between India and China over territorial disputes is increasing the risk of another front in South-Central Asia, which would lead to not just an India-China war, but also a renewed Pakistan-India conflict. Again, all this is connected to what is happening in the MENA.
The situation right now is extremely momentous and serious. The liberation of Palestine and the eviction of NATO from the MENA will likely accompany China’s victory over the West in the Pacific (Taiwan etc.) and Russia’s over the West in Ukraine.