Middle East is as usual the most complicated part to decypher as there are a lot of frenemies (friend in one side and enemies of the other).
But the last moves almost draw a battle lines similar to the cold war in Europe with actual war zones (thick red).
Qatar rift – the CIA released prove that the issue (which started from 2014 at least) was sperked by a cyberattack from the UAE. It looks again (with Yemen, still at war) that the Saudi have bitten more than they can chew as it pushed Qatar straight into the arms of Iran and Turkey. Qatar is a supporter of Palestinian interest against Israel and as soon Israel and Saudi Arabia announced mutual cooperation…attacks start in Israel.
In Syria the US stopped supporting Anti Assad rebels, de facto accepting the Syrian Government. This is a major move.
Israel keeps on hitting weapons convoys to Hezbollah. In these years Israel has succeeded to be “out of sight out of mind” by the various quagmires…but it is slowly being dragged in.
Turkey is moving more and more towards Russia. It accepted Russian air missile defence systems, it has a rift with Germany and a Turkish newspaper released all the US bases in Syria embedded with the Kurdish. A pro Russian Turkey is a strategic nightmare due to the Black Sea access. Also an alignment Iran – Turkey is quite a shift (as it would be Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq, Lebanon Qatar ) vs Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE, Kuwait, Libya, Bahrain.
Iran is recruiting for a potential fight in Iraq in case the Iraq Kurds announce a Kurd State (which probably will be not liked also by Turkey – even if Turkey is more enemy with the Syrian Kurds the the Iraqi Kurds). Also there are increasing tension between Iran and the Gulf State (too many to mention).
investorpolitico 