The events sweeping the Middle East these past days have run along two paths: a return to war, or a turn to negotiation - an effort, within the terms of a violated truce, to find a way out of the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz that Iran has chosen to seize. Iran's claim runs not only along the waters off its own coast, but along the Omani shore as well, where nothing may pass or operate without the approval of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The "Fourth Gulf War" widened amid the negotiating maneuvers and, in short, became a regional war. It reached the southwest of the Arabian Peninsula, where the Houthis fired missiles at Saudi targets. This was nothing new; the Houthi militias had done the same before.
What was new was the response of Yemen's internationally recognized government, which struck Houthi targets. More important still, the legitimate Yemeni government and the Coalition to Support Legitimacy had, at the time of writing, kept the Houthis from closing the Bab al-Mandab Strait, deploying a courageous naval force to do so. Iran did not achieve its aim of controlling two straits at once, Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab. The first carries 20 percent of global oil exports; the second, 15 percent of world trade.
The war has become regional. It touches the Arab countries set between the Gulf in the east and the Red Sea in the west, the Mediterranean in the north and the Indian Ocean in the south.
What began as a spark on October 7, 2023, on the Gaza-Israel border has gone on spreading, driven by Iran and its "arms" and by the radical ideologies it has pressed on the Middle East.
These forces have gone by more than one name-at times the "resistance and steadfastness front," at times the "support front." The purpose of both is the same: to destroy the Arab nation-state and block its path to progress and advancement.
So Iraqi militia forces added their own drones and missiles against the Kingdom, while imposing a broader equation inside Iraq: refuse to surrender your weapons, or face civil war.
The disarmament of other factions did not settle the matter. The militias pressed on with the brinkmanship they favor, as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza threatened civil war-and, with it, the authorities themselves.
Breaking that equation began with the courageous Saudi and Yemeni response-in Iraq, in the waters at the mouth of the Red Sea, and against the attacks that Iran and its "arms" had launched, before and since, on the states of the Arabian Peninsula.
Iran cannot be allowed to seize control of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab. Doing so would choke global trade routes and cut off access to international markets through the SUMED pipeline or the Suez Canal.
This regional confrontation demands an Arab, Middle Eastern, and international solution - one that thwarts Iran's plans and the militias that threaten the integrity of the Arab nation-state in Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen, and now head toward Syria.
In brief, the first requirement is to block Iran and its militias from achieving their aim of bringing down the nation-state.
Second, full support must go to the legitimate governments that have stated plainly that weapons, political authority, and decisions of war and peace belong solely to the legitimate national authority.
Third, the current alliance of evil must be stripped of legitimacy by appealing directly to its own political and social base that once held a distinguished record of national contribution since independence.
Fourth, the war does not threaten direct Arab interests on the front line alone. It is an open threat to international peace and security. If that is so, then the countries harmed by the region's war owe it their support.
