For Nato, the past three years have been consumed by its focus on responding to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Although the war has been a priority for the alliance, this week’s Nato summit in The Hague has already been largely overwhelmed by the repercussions of Israel’s unilateral attack on Iran. And with the Saturday follow-up bombing of Iran by the Americans, the largest Nato member state has only deepened this diversion in focus.
However, this shift in Nato’s strategic focus is prompting a long-overdue consideration of how the bloc should address security challenges in the Middle East.
Although any discussion of a role for Nato in the Middle East would challenge perceptions of the alliance’s geographical and operational limits as a defensive force, Nato has emerged as much more than a North Atlantic bloc. For several years now, it has embarked on a more ambitious – but much-needed – campaign of “out-of-area operations”. These have included elements of crisis response, peacekeeping and counterterrorism, each of which was more about meeting the needs of a changing security environment than simply seeking a wider mission or mandate for Nato.
Such out-of-area operations have also reflected a broader and more sophisticated Nato focus on the Mediterranean as well as the Middle East and North Africa, and a deepening of Nato’s Partnership for Peace engagement with countries across the former Soviet space. In this context, Nato is no longer limited to the North Atlantic.
Looking to today’s daunting security landscape in the Middle East, currently driven by the Israel-Iran conflict but also defined by the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, the imperative for Nato is to respond to security challenges and reject the strict constraints of geography.
Nato engagement in the Middle East should not – and most likely cannot – take the form of a new military alliance. Rather, Nato should emphasise local self-sufficiency and capability in addition to forging and fostering regional co-operation among the Middle Eastern states themselves. Although the Israeli and American military strikes against Iran would seemingly challenge this opening for Nato, the need for de-escalation and the necessity to climb down from the focus on military responses to Iran’s nuclear programme do offer an opportunity.
Even for Iran, such Nato engagement would broaden the context away from co-ordinated Israeli-American pressure to possible multilateral diplomacy by bringing in European Nato members. And even for the US, such Nato involvement would help to address the security concerns about a future restart of a nuclear programme by an emboldened Iran by beefing-up compliance and enforcement of subsequent proliferation safeguards.
For the future of security and stability in the Middle East, it is the largely European Nato member states (with a pronounced Turkish role) that will be key to driving Nato engagement
The most obvious and natural pool of candidate nations for such Nato engagement comprises those countries with long-standing partnerships with the US, which Washington would be more inclined to support.
A key partner in this project of Nato engagement would be Jordan, given the already-robust support for the alliance from King Abdullah II. In fact, the most recent sign of an opportunity for Nato in the Middle East came from Amman, when Jordan agreed earlier this month to establish and host a Nato liaison office in its capital. That decision, which followed a preliminary agreement between Jordan and Nato in July last year, marks the first Nato diplomatic presence in the Middle East.
More broadly, Nato engagement would seek to counter sources of regional instability in the Middle East, with a focus on de-escalation of the Israel-Iran conflict and a smarter approach in finding a lasting resolution to the Palestine-Israel conflict. However, the current situation regarding Iran offers more peril than promise.
As The National’s US affairs columnist Hussein Ibish recently warned in these pages, “if [US President Donald] Trump joins Israel in striking Iran, the US will enter another forever war”, adding that Mr Trump’s “alarming trajectory for his administration’s policies” towards Iran, as well as Israel, does nothing to inspire confidence in Washington’s management of this crisis. In fact, the US has been moving closer to the Israeli position in recent days, with Mr Trump’s rhetoric more aligned with the Israeli leadership’s hardline narrative.
As much as Israel’s attack on Iran was calculated to undermine Washington’s diplomatic negotiations with Tehran, it was also designed to force the hand of Mr Trump into supporting the Israeli offensive. And given Mr Trump’s decision to bomb Iran, it is now clear that this Israeli gambit was successful. Thus, for the future of security and stability in the Middle East, it is the largely European Nato member states (with a pronounced Turkish role) that will be key to driving Nato engagement.
The timing of Nato’s entry into the Middle East would be critical, in three distinct ways.
First, it would follow a significant decline in power and influence of Iran’s proxy forces, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen. This further bolsters the chance for empowering these inherently fragile states after the demise and decline of local Iranian proxies.
Second, it would come amid the strategic shifts in the Middle East’s geopolitical landscape that began in December last year with the fall of Bashar Al Assad’s government in Syria and which continues with the possibility of abrupt change within Iran. It is this context that reveals the game-changing nature of the current Middle East, although the volatility and unpredictability of such geopolitical changes present as many threats as opportunities.
The third consideration of timing is rooted in the uncertainty regarding the US. With new questions hanging over America’s commitment to its own security obligations, both to individual Nato allies and the alliance itself, Nato engagement in the Middle East would also be a response to a dangerous security vacuum. And the unilateral, “go it alone” nature of the recent American military attack on Iran only demonstrates the danger of blind reliance on the US’s commitment to Nato.
As already demonstrated by the Trump administration’s erratic “America first” approach to Ukraine, Nato leadership has increasingly become more of an exercise in European strategic thinking, not because of the Americans but despite them. More broadly, Nato now faces a daunting vacuum, whereby geopolitics, like nature, abhors and resists any vacuum in power.
Cracks in the Wall
Ben White, Pluto Press
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
How to come clean about financial infidelity
- Be honest and transparent: It is always better to own up than be found out. Tell your partner everything they want to know. Show remorse. Inform them of the extent of the situation so they know what they are dealing with.
- Work on yourself: Be honest with yourself and your partner and figure out why you did it. Don’t be ashamed to ask for professional help.
- Give it time: Like any breach of trust, it requires time to rebuild. So be consistent, communicate often and be patient with your partner and yourself.
- Discuss your financial situation regularly: Ensure your spouse is involved in financial matters and decisions. Your ability to consistently follow through with what you say you are going to do when it comes to money can make all the difference in your partner’s willingness to trust you again.
- Work on a plan to resolve the problem together: If there is a lot of debt, for example, create a budget and financial plan together and ensure your partner is fully informed, involved and supported.
Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
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FOOTBALL TEST
Team X 1 Team Y 0
Scorers
Red card
Man of the Match
UAE tour of Zimbabwe
All matches in Bulawayo
Friday, Sept 26 – UAE won by 36 runs
Sunday, Sept 28 – Second ODI
Tuesday, Sept 30 – Third ODI
Thursday, Oct 2 – Fourth ODI
Sunday, Oct 5 – First T20I
Monday, Oct 6 – Second T20I
BMW M5 specs
Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor
Power: 727hp
Torque: 1,000Nm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 10.6L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh650,000
Profile of MoneyFellows
Founder: Ahmed Wadi
Launched: 2016
Employees: 76
Financing stage: Series A ($4 million)
Investors: Partech, Sawari Ventures, 500 Startups, Dubai Angel Investors, Phoenician Fund
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
2018 ICC World Twenty20 Asian Western Regional Qualifier
The top three teams progress to the Asia Qualifier
Final: UAE beat Qatar by nine wickets
Third-place play-off: Kuwait beat Saudi Arabia by five runs
Table
1 UAE 5 5 0 10
2 Qatar 5 4 1 8
3 Saudi 5 3 2 6
4 Kuwait 5 2 3 4
5 Bahrain 5 1 4 2
6 Maldives 5 0 5 0
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre V8
Power: 503hp at 6,000rpm
Torque: 685Nm at 2,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Price: from Dh850,000
On sale: now
The%20specs
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India squad for fourth and fifth Tests
Kohli (c), Dhawan, Rahul, Shaw, Pujara, Rahane (vc), Karun, Karthik (wk), Pant (wk), Ashwin, Jadeja, Pandya, Ishant, Shami, Umesh, Bumrah, Thakur, Vihari
Haircare resolutions 2021
From Beirut and Amman to London and now Dubai, hairstylist George Massoud has seen the same mistakes made by customers all over the world. In the chair or at-home hair care, here are the resolutions he wishes his customers would make for the year ahead.
1. 'I will seek consultation from professionals'
You may know what you want, but are you sure it’s going to suit you? Haircare professionals can tell you what will work best with your skin tone, hair texture and lifestyle.
2. 'I will tell my hairdresser when I’m not happy'
Massoud says it’s better to offer constructive criticism to work on in the future. Your hairdresser will learn, and you may discover how to communicate exactly what you want more effectively the next time.
3. ‘I will treat my hair better out of the chair’
Damage control is a big part of most hairstylists’ work right now, but it can be avoided. Steer clear of over-colouring at home, try and pursue one hair brand at a time and never, ever use a straightener on still drying hair, pleads Massoud.
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Essentials
The flights
Etihad and Emirates fly direct from the UAE to Delhi from about Dh950 return including taxes.
The hotels
Double rooms at Tijara Fort-Palace cost from 6,670 rupees (Dh377), including breakfast.
Doubles at Fort Bishangarh cost from 29,030 rupees (Dh1,641), including breakfast. Doubles at Narendra Bhawan cost from 15,360 rupees (Dh869). Doubles at Chanoud Garh cost from 19,840 rupees (Dh1,122), full board. Doubles at Fort Begu cost from 10,000 rupees (Dh565), including breakfast.
The tours
Amar Grover travelled with Wild Frontiers. A tailor-made, nine-day itinerary via New Delhi, with one night in Tijara and two nights in each of the remaining properties, including car/driver, costs from £1,445 (Dh6,968) per person.
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
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The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
