As regional powers warn of war, their deeper anxiety is not chaos—but a Middle East reshaped by Israeli dominance.
A familiar script is playing out once again. Whenever the United States moves toward striking a Middle Eastern dictatorship, the process begins with weeks of tension, frantic diplomatic contacts, and urgent warnings—while the targeted regime refuses to grasp the severity of its situation until it is too late.
Iran is now following that same path. Its leaders are no more flexible, no less ideological, and no less convinced of their own resilience than Saddam Hussein once was. Their last, best hope to avert American action lies not in Washington, but in the Sunni Arab world.
Qatar, Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia have all publicly warned that a US strike on Iran could spiral into a regional war. But behind the scenes, regional experts say something else is driving their concern: the near-certainty that the collapse of the ayatollahs’ regime would lead to unprecedented Israeli regional hegemony.
