Before October 7, 2023, West Asia looked like a different region, at least from a geopolitical perspective. The Palestine question had been pushed to the margins of the region. Palestinians themselves were divided with the Islamist Hamas controlling Gaza and the Fatah running the Palestine Authority in the West Bank. Iran, despite its economic woes, remained a powerful actor through its so-called axis of resistance. The Arab countries, mostly the wealthy Persian Gulf monarchies, saw Iran as a security threat, and chose to deepen security cooperation with Israel.
The United States, seeking to slowly disentangle itself from West Asia, was trying to knit together two of its key regional pillars — the Arab world and Israel — into a joint front against Iran. The foundation of this vision was laid in the Abraham Accords of 2020, brokered by the first Trump administration, through which four Arab countries signed a normalisation agreement with Israel. By 2023, Saudi Arabia was in an advanced stage of normalising ties with Israel.
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