From Syria to Saudi Arabia, the Middle East Is Experiencing an End of Ideology

US President Donald Trump’s decision to bomb Iranian nuclear sites at the end of last week called on many warnings that the United States should not stumble in Iran as it did with Iraq in 2003. But during his trip to the Middle East in May, Trump had already showed an intention to refer to the region for a new future.

If Washington’s relations have been defined long ago about oil and security in the Middle East, Trump’s visit this time has shared data, artificial intelligence and digital infrastructure. Its dramatic lifting of sanctions on Syria and the normalization of relations with the new administration in Damascus led to the main headlines. But he returned home with more than a symbolic handshake. It has signed a portfolio of technology -based agreements, indicating the location of Gulf powers’ attempts to direct their countries and the wider region.

The blatant contrast that Trump drew in his historical speech on May 13, between the growing Gulf economies and the dilapidated economy in Iran, hitting a string-especially in Iran, where the numbers were used through the political spectrum to defend the normalization of relations with the United States and its endeavor in the sixth economic development. Now, since Iran is relying on the traces of brutal war with Israel and the United States, after it has lost senior officials, hundreds of civilians, and a lot of infrastructure, the contrast is more clear.

But the Middle East has been going through a major shift long before Trump’s flight. For many years, the region has witnessed gradual but essential changes with a clear path. The essence of this process is the decline in militias across patriotism and revolutionary ideologies as essential to the policy of the Middle East. By directly confronting Iranian revolutionary guards, Israel also aims to put a final end for the half -year of the regional scene dominated by non -international representatives.

In their place, strong sovereign countries and demands for economic development and public services occupy the center of the lead. This operation was ongoing before October 7, 2023, but the consequences of Hamas’s killer attack on that day, and the Israeli war that followed, did not accelerate it only. The so -called Iranian resistance axis, which is the most amazing and cohesive alliance of non -governmental actors in the region, is now in ruins, and regional states have become priority to the state’s relations to the state, and less in the interest of the militia care in each other.

It can be said that the era of ascending to the ideological actors began in 1967 with Israel’s victory over Egypt, Syria and other Arab countries in the six -day war. In the wake of the insulting defeat of the Arab armies, the Palestine Liberation Organization has turned from an Egyptian -subsidized group to the Haldian War Organization, which led to a popular cause of national liberation. The Cairo Agreement in 1969 demonstrated a pivotal turning point in the history of geography of the Middle East. It was signed by Yasser Arafat and Emile Bustani (on behalf of the Lebanese government), and under the patronage of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, the agreement aims to give the official nature of the state of Palestinian armed groups in Lebanon.

Upon returning back, the agreement has become widely as a historic moment in the rise of non -governmental actors in the Middle East policy, especially in the context of anti -Israel mobilization. Multiple precedents, including normalization of non -governmental armed groups, the erosion of state sovereignty, and the normalization of parallel governance, which have proven to be an inspiration for other actors.

At the same time, the Palestine Liberation Organization and other Arab revolutionary militias have not lost any time to interfere in the internal affairs of Arab countries such as Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon and Iraq. But this is well proportional to the mood of the times, as the most important powers in Arab politics have defined themselves through Al -Hawli, and the Palestinian issue exceeded everything else. The Muslim Brotherhood has done this since its foundation in 1928, before the history of most Arab countries dates back to decades. The Pan Arab Bath came to power in Iraq and Syria in the sixties of the last century, and the water regimes supported there are non -governmental actors in various Arab countries.

The same applies to the Libyan Gaddafi regime, which seized power in 1969 and helped destabilize regional policy. In the aftermath of the Iranian revolution in 1979, Tehran’s sponsorship of many militias in countries such as Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, and in the Palestinian territories, Arab political life increased and undermined the sovereignty of Arab countries.

The result was catastrophic: Many Arab countries have already turned into failed states, without sovereign strength on their soil. Civil wars, always with foreign interference and sometimes with an explicit foreign occupation, has witnessed a political life in Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, the Palestinian territories, Syria, Sudan and Yemen. On the other side of the equation, countries such as the vulgar Iraq and Iran were missing Iran and risked their future by spending their resources not on their own development, but to expand their influence in other countries, in this process they shake them for them and the entire region.

The Arab Spring, which apparently began with democratic hopes, not only accelerated this process. Through the overthrow of long -term autocracy in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen, the local policy of these countries revealed interference and competition from regional powers. The result was a series of civil wars – often of sectarian dimensions – in which regional weights such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates intervened to form results. This vacuum has led to an increase in the rise of non -governmental actors, the most prominent of which is the Islamic State, which symbolizes the attack along the Iraqi -Syrian border on the collapse of the state’s authority in most parts of the region.

The period from 2011 was a rising, deep regional dynamics, which led to the weakening or collapse of traditional political centers in the Arab world: Egypt, Iraq, Libya, and Syria. This reduced the traditional urban, intellectual and cultural centers of Arab nationalism and political activity – Baghdad, Beirut, Cairo, Damascus – and left the leadership vacuum in the Arab world. With the collapse of paid models in terms of ideological or nationalism, the influence of the Gulf states was high, which helped to display their development models as a new regional standard.

During the era of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the actual Saudi leader since 2017, Rayyad has moved away from his patronage of Islam through patriotism, and instead gives priority to stability and economic growth for himself. Since 2019, a series of diplomatic deals has ended the most durable traits in the region. The Saudis promoted relations with Iran, Turkey and Qatar. Türkiye and the United Arab Emirates have ended the enmity of horse, which played on the local policy of Egypt, Libya and Syria. Ibrahim is consistent with the natural relations between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. Accordingly, the fall of the Iranian resistance axis promises to end the last active actors and the ideological frameworks across patriotism.

Elsewhere, the PKK (PKK), a powerful, active patriotic force in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey, put its arms and promised to engage in the political process. A long time before the last step, it abandoned separatism as a goal.

The new Ahmed Shara government in Syria is ideal for this new approach, which brings the final blow to the resistance axis. The new referees of Damascus made it clear that they are seeking to focus on Syria and its economic development. They want to consolidate the fruits of their revolution, not export them. The first major pilgrimage to Ehari was his head, not Mecca, which is a traffic ritual on the country’s care for the former militia leader.

The Palestinians want their own, not destroying other countries in the region, and the condemnation gathered after the catastrophic result of the Hamas attack on October 7. Hamas political wealth in Nader. Its colleagues of ideological allies in the Muslim Brotherhood faced political defeats and repression in Jordan, Kuwait and Morocco.

A new approach was adopted in Baghdad and Beirut, once the axes of the resistance axis. After Hezbollah was struck by Israel, the government of Lebanon avoids the Iranian -backed militia, albeit slowly, moving to confirm its sovereignty. Even in Iraq, the leadership is heading towards confirming the sovereignty of the state against the strong militias backed by Iran. Baghdad now, at least, aims to balance its relations with the main Arab capitals and Tehran. The upcoming parliamentary elections this year will probably strengthen this trend.

In Tehran itself, too, change occurs. Ayatollah Ali Khawni, the 86 -year -old Iranian leader, is a revolutionary revolutionary who wandered his life on the spread of the Islamic revolution. But it is likely to be the last leader of Iran. For years, “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” ​​chanted while selling security and challenge locally in an area that often witnessed great stability. But at the moment of the truth, when Iran found itself in war with these countries, he hid in his hideout and was not anywhere he could see. When he finally went out to deliver a speech, he seemed weak and remained for the previous.

But while Khamenei’s ability to dictate Iran’s future has taken a big blow, he has now left with the difficult option to oversee a transfer process that would hope to ensure the continuity of his regime.

In the Iranian presidential elections last year, Masoud Bzshkian ran the reformist platform to engage with the world and defeated the arduous ideology of the hard ideology Saeed Galiley. The same result was held in every one presidential election since 2013 (with the exception of 2021, when a dangerous candidate is not allowed to reform). Important sections of the Ruling Tehran Foundation now believe that the country must move away from its catastrophic policy of supporting the resistance axis towards giving priority to the development of the economy. This explains the enthusiastic hopes of the situation of many Iranians in talks with the United States and in their new relations with the Saudis. When the extremist Iranian cleric recently insulted the Saudi royal family on a trip to Mecca, he was highly convicted by Iranian officials.

Many obstacles remain. Israel’s brutal war on Gaza and continuing to occupy the Palestinian territories deprives the Palestinians of self -determination and delaying Israel in the region. Civil wars are still Bidiville Libya, Sudan and Yemen. But the regional policy path is clear. These days, many regional leaders seem to have the ethics of former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, who, after they tour southern China in 1992, mocked the saying: “I don’t care if the cat is black or white, as long as it picks up mice.” He wanted to put an end to decades of the constant ideological conflict over the style of the Chinese economy, and instead confirms that “development is of careless importance”.

Also in the Middle East, the spirit of Dengist is now unambiguous in the air, focusing on effective government institutions, quality public services, stable relations from the state to countries, and economic prosperity. This is the pre -condition of any dreams in the fair and democratic Middle East. For a very long time, the Middle East served as a strange word of internal conflict and endless wars. But with the silence of weapons, the area has an opportunity to draw a road towards a different future.