Today the world is facing a deadly danger: serious tensions in Eastern Europe on the one hand and the Middle East on the other are already beginning to make a deadly war inevitable.
Given that both camps possess the world's most dangerous nuclear weapons, this puts the future of both camps and even neighboring countries at risk.
Unfortunately, as tensions rise, confidence in reconciliation between the parties in both regions is fading.
Russia-Ukraine war: what's happening on the front line?
Ukrainian troops slowly but surely advanced towards Russian territory, occupying the Kursk, Bryansk and Belgorod regions starting on August 6. However, it is interesting that the fact that Ukrainian troops managed to advance more than 30 km deep into Russian territory in just nine days did not alarm the authorities in Moscow very much.
Earlier this week, Viktor Zavarzin, a member of the State Duma Defense Committee, said on Moscow Speaks radio that there would be no mobilization within Russia because “we have enough troops, we have already achieved results, and our air forces are functional.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday called Ukrainian incursion into Russian territory a “major provocation” and stressed that appropriate countermeasures would force the other side to withdraw.
However, Ukrainian operations have gradually expanded into neighboring Belgorod. Ukrainian forces have occupied villages along the Belgorod border, resulting in the evacuation of 11,000 people from the Belgorod region. Ukrainian sources say several thousand Ukrainian troops are in Kursk.
Nuclear threads around Zaporizhzhia
Meanwhile, the intensification of the war between Russia and Ukraine has intensified new nuclear threats on Ukrainian territory. The Russian-controlled Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant has long been a threat to neighboring countries. A fire at the nuclear power plant earlier this week partially damaged a cooling tower but did not result in a serious fire. However, the International Atomic Energy Agency has sounded the alarm about this, and IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said in a statement: “These reckless attacks put the nuclear safety of the plant at risk and increase the risk of a nuclear accident. They must be stopped now.”
Both Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for the incident, but there is no accurate information about who fired the shots. The reality is that any malfunction at a nuclear power plant can pose a deadly threat to the environment.
It is difficult to expect a positive outcome from a war that has lasted for more than two years and killed more than 10,500 civilians. Ukraine has suffered greater territorial losses than Russia (about 18%), but its leadership insists that its troops will not withdraw from the territories it has seized in the past week in Russia's Kursk and Belgorod oblasts. Ukraine believes that negotiations are not possible under the current circumstances and that this outcome will be decisive in its long-lost battle with Russia.
Tensions in the Middle East rise
In fact, tensions between Ukraine and Russia continue to run parallel to similar motivations in the Middle East, with negotiations and peace agreements being completely excluded from the process.
The conflict has intensified since the assassination of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, and negotiations cannot be concluded at this time.
The four nations — Israel, the United States, Hamas and Iran — are currently on the brink of a violent war, with White House officials urging Israel to be on high alert, as they believe an Iranian attack could happen at any time.
The next Israeli rocket attack killed 24 people in the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis, prompting an Iranian counterattack. White House security and communications adviser John F. Kirby told reporters that U.S. intelligence shared Israel's view that the expected attack “could happen as soon as this week.”
Affected by the tensions, Israel's government leadership is already trying to resort to tougher measures. For example, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan for a “total victory” was not taken seriously by Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Galant, a sign that Israel is tired of the conflict with Hamas that has been going on for nearly 11 months. Israel is now trying to stop Hamas and military groups close to Iran at all costs. There is no talk of the extreme use of nuclear weapons. However, given that both Iran and possibly Israel possess nuclear warheads, the world is at great risk of catastrophe.
Will the Middle East and Ukraine-Russia crises lead to Russia and Iran uniting against the West?
Many possibilities are beginning to be identified. Thus, it is said that in the midst of the ongoing tensions between Russia and Ukraine and in the Middle East, a common interest of Russia and Iran may emerge. Looking from afar, first of all, the relevance of this issue remains doubtful, but with a deeper analysis, it is already inevitable that this possibility can occur at any time. The fact that Ukraine has already advanced into Russian territory shows that Western countries are increasingly targeting Moscow. This was mentioned by Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova in her statement on the invasion of Ukraine. The White House denied the fact that it had been behind the Ukrainian army since August 6 and said that it did not know that Ukraine was gaining an advantage, but the Kremlin authorities are already beginning to understand what is happening. In such cases, there is no choice but to divert the thoughts of Western countries and draw their attention to the Middle East. Therefore, Moscow authorities do not want to ignore the possibility that Russian-Iranian cooperation could have an impact on the war, even if it was not significant.
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Elnur Enveroglu is deputy editor of AzerNews. translation:
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