by Cole Harrison
It is an understatement to say that US policy in the Middle East is in disarray.
The United States is involved in a geopolitical contest for control of the Middle East, which is still the center of the world’s oil supply. In a larger sense, the US is competing with China for power, alliances, and world hegemony. The US itself – a net petroleum exporter — doesn’t need Middle East oil but control of the transportation routes to and from the region is a major strategic goal.
Israel is the US’s primary ally in the region, but our government seeks to maintain as many other alliances as possible with Saudi, UAE, Jordan, Egypt and more, while challenging those states which are resisting the U.S. agenda, including Iran, Syria, and resistance movements in Lebanon, Iraq, and elsewhere.
As Israel’s US-supported genocidal assault on Gaza has killed over 27,000 and targeted hospitals, schools, mosques, press, and relief workers, furious indignation is rising among Arab populations across the Middle East. Even long-time US allies in the region like Jordan have been critical of our unconditional support for Israel’s war on the Palestinians.
Further, Saudi Arabia has just rebuffed US pressure for normalization with Israel, reiterating its position since 2002 that a lasting peace will only be possible with Palestinian statehood recognized along the 1967 lines and their capital in now occupied East Jerusalem.
Ansar Allah, the group also called the Houthis, that controls most of Yemen and has fought off the Saudi intervention over an eight-year civil war, is attacking Israel-bound ships in the Red Sea, saying it will stop when a ceasefire is reached in Gaza. The US and UK are retaliating by attacking Houthi targets in Yemen, claiming they are protecting freedom of navigation. Palestine enjoys no freedom of navigation, as Gaza has been under an Israeli naval blockade since 2006.
Rocket exchanges between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah are increasing in intensity. US forces based in countries like Syria and Iraq have come under repeated, if small-scale, attacks, that have resulted in 146 US casualties since October 7, including three US service members killed in a base along the Syrian border with Jordan. Starting Feb. 2, President Biden ordered massive US air strikes against regional militias, which have killed at least 40 people, including civilians.
Congress has not authorized military action (or even the stationing of US troops in Syria in the first place), and their presence violates international law.
The United States stations 45,400 troops across the Middle East, in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Saudi, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria. The Syrian government has long demanded the US troops leave its territory; in Iraq, negotiations for the exit of US troops are underway. Resistance militias in Iraq and Syria are responding to the US’s arming of Israel by attacking US forces in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan.
The danger of a wider regional war in the Middle East is growing rapidly. All parties would prefer to avoid war, but the logic of domination and one-upmanship is going to make it very hard to prevent, unless the US Administration turns back from its current policy.
—
Cole Harrison is the Executive Director at Massachusetts Peace Action.
