The collapse of national sovereignty in the Middle East

The collapse of national sovereignty in the Middle East Those who anticipated that a U.S. war against Iran (congress.gov › R48887) would risk igniting a region-wide conflagration are looking prescient. The latest metastasis of the conflict has included airstrikes (npr.org › us saudi arabia iran iraq) by both the United States and Saudi Arabia in Iraq, against Iraqi militias seen as allied with Iran. The Houthi regime in Yemen, as a direct outgrowth of the U.S.-Iran war, has renewed attacks (reuters.com) on shipping in the Red Sea. This has led to new fighting between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia, which is preparing a possible new offensive (theguardian.com) in Yemen and is attempting to draw in (nytimes.com › saudi arabia red sea houthis) dozens of other countries on its side of this fray.The Iranian strategy of responding to the U.S. and Israeli aggression through horizontal escalation has drawn in still more countries. Iranian strikes against Saudi Arabia and the UAE have led to Saudi and Emirati attacks (nytimes.com › saudi arabia uae iran attacks) in Iran. Other Iranian retaliatory strikes have occurred in Kuwait (cnbc.com › us iran war trump hormuz), Bahrain (scrippsnews.com), Qatar (aa.com.tr), and Jordan (thehill.com › 5998256 trump threatens iran retaliation), scene of the most recent American casualties.Violence spread last week to Egypt’s Mediterranean port of Damietta, where a drone of unknown origin caused fires (thearabweekly.com) on two vessels. Some suggest Iranian allies may have been responsible, but Iran, which has good relations with Egypt, denies any connection and suggests (aa.com.tr) it may have been an Israeli false flag attack.The violence related to the war in Iran is spreading far enough to start overlapping the Russian war against Ukraine, with a Ukrainian strike (nytimes.com › iran ukraine ship strikes caspian) against a Russia-bound Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea. A merging of the wars in Iran and Ukraine would appeal to (responsiblestatecraft.org › zelensky iran war trump) at least one Middle Eastern state: Israel.In addition to the actual spreading of violence, there is the threat of still more. President Donald Trump has at various times threatened not only to escalate attacks against civilian infrastructure in Iran but even to attack Oman (nytimes.com › oman iran trump threat), which has been one of the mediators trying to de-escalate the violence.Violence related to the current war with Iran builds on lines of conflict that existed prior to the war. The United States already was using Iraqi territory—where, of course, it had waged an earlier major war of aggression (en.wikipedia.org › 2003 invasion of Iraq)—to do battle with Iran when it used a missile strike (bbc.com › world middle east 50979463) at the Baghdad airport in 2020 to kill Iranian military commander and political figure Qassem Soleimani. Iran retaliated (nbcnews.com) with a missile attack on a base in Iraq housing U.S. troops. Yemeni-Saudi fighting today