Creating Building Blocks for Cooperative Security in the Middle East

Dorsey SYNOPSIS A failure to agree on a revival of the 2015 international Iran nuclear agreement that would recommit the United States and Iran to the deal threatens prospects for greater security and stability in the Middle East and risks igniting a missile and a nuclear arms race. [...] From Unilateralism to Multilateralism Mitigating in favour of a firmer grounding of the reduction of regional tension is the fact that it is driven not only by economic factors such as the economic transition in the Gulf and the economic crisis in Turkey, Iran, and Egypt but also by big-power geopolitics. [...] In addition to the emerging, albeit tentative, macro-level big power consensus on a more inclusive, multilateral approach, efforts by the major regional powers – Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Turkey, Israel, and Iran – to reduce tensions and put relations on a more even keel, contribute to an environment potentially conducive to discussion of a more broad-based security architectur. [...] The administration has encouraged security cooperation between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain (two Arab states that two years ago established diplomatic relations with Israel under the Abraham Accords), as well as with Saudi Arabia, which has changed its long-standing hostile attitudes towards the Jewish state but refuses to formalise relations in the absence of a resolution of the Palestinian pro. [...] Rajaratnam School of International Studies, and the author of the syndicated column and blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.