Even an attack on Mecca isn't enough to unite the Middle East against Iran, analyst tells 'Post'

The attack on Mecca has demonstrated that ‘this is not a religious war,’ even if Iran has attempted to portray it as such, Bahraini political analyst Dr. Ahmed Alkhuzaie said.

Even an attack on Islam’s holiest city has not been enough to unite the Middle East in responding to the Iranian axis, Bahraini political analyst Dr. Ahmed Alkhuzaie told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday, a day after Saudi Arabia said its air defenses had shot down a Houthi drone south of Mecca.

Alkhuzaie claimed that Middle Eastern states have been too dysfunctional for years now and were left unable to respond to the threats posed by the Iranian axis.

After choosing their political “ideology over sustainability and even religion,” he claimed that only Morocco and Jordan had been able to align themselves with the Gulf states. He argued that Lebanon is preoccupied with reasserting sovereignty domestically, Egypt has been focused on its financial difficulties and other regional concerns, while countries such as Algeria have other allegiances to consider, particularly after severing diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates last week.

With the current lack of alignment in mind, Alkhuzaie predicted that there would be yet more reshuffling in the conventions and alliances that span across the region, including the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement signed by Riyadh, Islamabad and Ankara last month.

“I can see some Arab nations getting closer to Israel, being pragmatic enough to serve the main purpose that is sovereignty over mediocrity,” he theorized.

Growing hopes of expansion of Abraham Accords

Despite once promising that it would be the last country to normalize relations with Israel, there are growing hopes that Kuwait may join the Abraham Accords. Yossi Shelley, Israel’s ambassador to the UAE, told KAN on Tuesday that another country, possibly Kuwait, could join the accords within four to six months. The comments come despite Kuwait’s 2021 amendments to its Israel boycott law, which introduced more punitive measures against those who engage socially or economically with Israeli citizens or entities.

The Houthis attack on Mecca, though dismissed by the group’s spokesperson Yahya Saree, has demonstrated to Muslims across the region that “this is not a religious war as Iran is portraying it,” he said.

The attack on the birthplace of the Islamic prophet Mohammed and the home of the Kaaba (the center of Islam's most important mosque) clearly communicated that neither the Houthis nor Iran “care about religion as they advertise,” he said.

With this gap in narrative and action clearly visible, Alkhuzaie said it was predictable that the Houthis would deny responsibility for the attack. However, he believed that the Houthis would blame Israel for the attack as a way to cause more incitement and justification for the axis’s attacks on American assets.