Axis of Defiance

Prior to the Arab-Israeli wars of 1956, 1967 and 1973, Israel was, by and large, deemed to be the designated enemy of the entire Arab-Muslim world, essentially because of its expansionism and ruthless annexation of Palestinian and Arab territories. Predictably, animosities multiplied. At that time, US foreign policy was ostensibly aimed at shaping a congenial strategic environment for Israel to dominate the region. It focused on maintaining Israel’s overwhelming military supremacy and exceptionalism in the Middle East (ME) while simultaneously dismantling and neutralising all potential threats to it from the Arab world!
To that end, the US-led West ostensibly followed a long-term, four-pronged policy. One, it deliberately created and maintained a critical strategic imbalance of power in the region, favouring Israel. It provided it with unstinted moral, political, military, economic, diplomatic and technological support to transform it into the arrogant, ruthless regional hegemon it has always endeavoured to be. Two, it set about systematically dismantling the ME/Arab world, leaving it leaderless (regime changes, assassinations, hangings), divided, weakened, dependent, scared, perpetually vulnerable and susceptible to the US-led West’s and Israel’s diktat, coercion, sanctions, skirmishes and wars. Three, it moved determinedly and systematically to scuttle all potential existential threats to Israel, real and/or imagined, near and/or afar. Four, critically, it changed the geopolitical orientation of the ME to Israel’s strategic advantage. In a classic foreign policy manoeuvre, over the years, the US-led West managed a role reversal of sorts. The tag of the designated enemy was transferred from Israel to Iran by creating, publicising and repeating, ad nauseam, the bogey of Iran’s (non-existent) nuclear weapons programme and the “threats” it posed to the Gulf Arab states, in particular. Ironically, the strategic orientation of the Gulf Arab states thus shifted from nuclear-armed Israel to non-nuclear-armed Iran! This glaring dichotomy created severe fissures in the Arab-Muslim world. It was adroitly exploited by the US-led West and Israel until the US-Israel Combine senselessly blundered into the current Gulf War. The Gulf Arab states and the Arab-Muslim world at large have since realised the fragility, futility and insincerity of US commitments, especially where Israel is involved too. The Makkah Defence Alliance (MDA), a direct consequence of this ill-fated, unjust and unfair war on Iran, has since emerged as a formidable, dynamic, geopolitical and geostrategic reality. It is bound to become the alternative centre of power and will have a profound, defining impact on the geopolitics of the region at large. Currently, regional geopolitics resemble a revolving door, with Israel and Iran taking turns as the designated enemy of the Gulf Arab states. Israel now stands to have the dubious honour all over again, regardless of how the current Gulf War ends!
The US had been redesigning and recreating the geopolitical environment to suit the joint interests of the US-Israel Combine for a long time. To that end, fragmenting and controlling the Arab world was a sine qua non. 1979 emerges as a very important year in the ME’s history. The Soviets got seriously distracted as they invaded Afghanistan, and a Pakistan-based, US-supported resistance movement was started. In the ME, the US got Egypt and Israel to sign a peace deal, which eventually cost Egyptian President Anwar Sadat his life. In the same year, the US-led West’s protégé, the Shah of Iran, was forced into exile in the West. The US-led West has never forgiven the Iranian Revolution and nation for this “transgression”; it lost its hold over Iran’s world-class oil and gas deposits! From 1980 to 1988, the US-led West lured Iran and Iraq into a suicidal, self-defeating, enervating war which practically decimated two of the Arab-Muslim world’s most formidable militaries. Unsurprisingly, the US-led West supplied arms and munitions to both belligerents simultaneously. Thereafter, Iraq was attacked twice, in 1991 and 2003. President Saddam Hussein was summarily executed at the end of the 2003 war. In 2011, Libyan President Gaddafi, an outspoken critic of the West, was ousted and killed in a horrible, inhumane manner. The more critical existential threats to Israel had thus apparently been neutralised!
Thereafter, the US-Israel Combine started concentrating on Iran – and predictably, its nuclear programme. PM Netanyahu ostensibly convinced President Trump that overcoming Iran would be a leisurely stroll in the park – quite similar to what the US had achieved in Venezuela. Thus, in July 2025, the US-Israel Combine launched surprise air attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites in Fordow, Natanz, Isfahan and elsewhere. Iran retaliated. Yet again, in February 2026, the US-Israel Combine launched joint pre-emptive strikes, killing Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and others, which triggered an extensive region-wide war that continues to date. The Iranian leadership and nation have displayed sterling mettle, grit, resolve, determination, defiance, and resilience, refusing to submit to the US-Israel Combine’s will. The US-Israel Combine now seems to be floundering in strategic vacuity, sans strategic direction and/or objectives. Its blundering into an ill-considered assault on Iran was a gross strategic miscalculation and certainly triggered the Republican Party’s rejection by the electorate in the US midterm elections. It was a personal repudiation of President Trump and his maverick policies, too! Reportedly, in desperation, he might even consider employing tactical nuclear weapons to bring this war to a swift, acceptable (?) closure! If resorted to, this will further compound the strategic failures of the US military and Administration – the horrific effects on the world notwithstanding!
Two factors will henceforth determine geopolitical developments in the ME. One, the role of the MDA, in not only deterring war but helping create and preserve peace. Two, options to use tactical nuclear weapons by the US, whether just a shot across the bow or otherwise. That will tantamount to crossing the hitherto sacrosanct nuclear Rubicon! Period.