The most serious of these was Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent warning that the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians may extend beyond the borders of the Middle East.
Warning details
Putin made these statements at a meeting in the Kremlin with Russian religious leaders of different faiths, in which he said: “It is wrong to punish innocent women, children and the elderly in Gaza for crimes committed by other people.”
He stressed that “the bloodshed in the region must stop,” adding that he “told world leaders in phone calls that if this did not happen, a much broader conflict could break out.”
Putin continued: “Our mission today, our main mission, is to stop the bloodshed and violence. Otherwise, further escalation of the crisis will be fraught with dire, extremely dangerous and destructive consequences, not only for the Middle East region. Rather, the matter may extend beyond the borders of that region.”
Exaggeration or diagnosis of reality?
Observers believe that the warning of the Kremlin master is completely appropriate, and expresses the seriousness of what is happening, and the war it may lead to involving major regional and global powers.
On the other hand, others believe that the conflict is in fact limited to a narrow geographical operational scope, and that the chances of the war spreading to the rest of the countries of the region and the world seem very slim.
They believe that the emerging discrepancy in the Russian and American positions on the crisis is an understandable and natural reflection of the raging conflict between the two sides, especially after the outbreak of the Ukraine war on February 24, 2022, and the resulting Western sanctions on Moscow and a serious deterioration in Russian-American and Western relations in general.
Russian researcher and expert in international relations, Timur Dowidar, said in an interview with Sky News Arabia:
- In Moscow, what is happening is not only viewed as a bilateral conflict between Israel and Hamas, but rather it is a complex and dangerous conflict that is likely to expand, explode, and turn into a major regional war, involving Israel’s Arab neighbors, especially Lebanon and Syria, as well as Iran.
- This is why Russia has taken military and intelligence measures in anticipation, and is studying the situation and monitoring it closely, and taking precautions against all open possibilities that portend a complex and long-term conflict that can expand east and west.
- We also do not forget China’s vital interests in the region and its huge investments in it. Therefore, in the event that the conflict develops and explodes on a large scale, Beijing and Moscow are fully concerned with it, and will not stand idly by in the face of a devastating fire on their borders, and in the heart of their vital and strategic space.
- It is in this context that Putin’s warning must be read. We are already on the brink of a dangerous abyss no less dangerous than the Ukraine crisis and the Russian-Western clash over it. Therefore, the matter is being taken seriously in Moscow and from a much broader perspective than Western capitals believe.
In turn, the writer and political analyst, Jamal Ares, said in an interview with “Sky News Arabia”:
- Although it is appropriate, this warning also involves some exaggeration, as it is true that the Middle East is a very important strategic region in international equations, but the conflict currently taking place is exclusively regional in scope, despite Western support for Israel, and the positions closest to the Palestinians, as is the case with China’s positions. Russia, for example.
- It is clear that the dispute between Moscow and Beijing over the Gaza war with Western capitals is part of the usual competition and rivalry between the two parties due to the traditional differences between them, in the context of the struggle for influence and control around the world, which has intensified further against the backdrop of the Ukraine war and Western support for Kiev.
- Therefore, the relative exaggeration here involves messages sent by Moscow to Washington, which are a response to what it considers to be Western exaggeration of the Ukraine crisis and the West and NATO adding fuel to its fire.
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