The Middle East’s largest non-Arab nations—Iran and Turkey—have emerged as the fiercest critics of recent peace agreement between Jerusalem and Abu Dhabi. To Behnam Ben Taleblu and Aykan Erdemir, the near-identical reactions of Ankara and Tehran reveal much about the “tectonic shifts” occurring in the region:
[Ironically], while in 2020 the UAE became the third Arab country to recognize Israel—after Egypt (1979) and Jordan (1994)—Turkey and Iran were, long ago, the first (1949) and second (1950) majority-Muslim nations to establish relations with the Jewish state.
Although Turkey and Iran have competed over regional hegemony for centuries, more recently they have exhibited a willingness to “compartmentalize” their rivalry and make the most of any tactical convergence—be it through sanctions-busting or anti-Kurdish policies, for example. The engine behind this convergence has been the same: Islamist state capture, first via a popular revolution in Iran (1979) and then using the ballot box in Turkey (2002). Its results have led to a more robust assault against the U.S.-led world order, as well as a nosedive in relations with Israel and other U.S. partners in the Middle East.
Iran has always seen the UAE and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries as jurisdictions ripe for hedging against America. For instance, despite the centrality of the Gulf to Washington’s maximum-pressure campaign, Tehran continued to use front companies located in the Emirates to help bust sanctions, sometimes even openly, as in the case of petrochemical sales. Another example was the escalation on full display last summer by Iran, first in the maritime domain, and then against a U.S. drone. The recipient of these signals? The UAE.
If anything, Taleblu and Erdemir conclude, the enmity of both Iran and Turkey has encouraged the UAE to move closer toward their shared enemy—Israel.
Read more on The Hill: https://thehill.com/opinion/international/514259-iran-and-turkey-sing-from-the-same-sheet-of-music-against-israel-uae