Dangerous coincidences

On very few occasions can we prove that coincidences exist on the international scene. Only nature and its most tragic phenomena come to punish or increase the hardships of those who normally suffer the consequences and collateral damage of some decisions of those who really rule the world. It is not a question of plunging into a constant paranoia of permanent conspiracy theory, but it would be of an innocence bordering on ignorance and stupidity not to relate the facts that are currently taking place on the international scene.

In the convulsive world we are currently navigating, we can see that the usual respect, more akin to fear, for the United States, the great superpower as international gendarme, has disappeared from the international scene. American hegemony is undoubtedly relevant, but it is not exempt from affronts that manage to provoke tension and even panic in the stock markets. The decisions taken in recent days by Saudi Prince Mohammed Bin Salman have nothing to do with chance and are part of his plan to achieve with his 2050 agenda, he has left behind the 2030 agenda, a solvent, influential and respected situation for a kingdom that does not depend exclusively on oil.

Bin Salman himself warned Washington that its exit from the Middle East to focus its attention on the Pacific and Southeast Asia would have the consequence that another international player would take its place. And the political and personal relations between the Saudi strongman and the American establishment broke down when he was singled out as a major culprit and responsible for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggui. President Joe Biden's words about Bin Salman's status as an international pariah are still echoing, but their last meeting, which included a fist bump, has not managed to overcome the sharp edges that separate them. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries have put themselves on the back foot in the feud between Russia and the United States plus the Atlantic allies over the invasion of Ukraine.

And not only that, they have found in China an effective mediator capable of achieving the restoration of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and who knows the intentions of the Chinese president in Moscow. In the stock market sphere, Chinese and Saudis are holders of a large part of the US debt and shareholders of Credit Suisse, among others. Perhaps Bin Salman is seeking autonomy, capacity and independence to make his decisions because at the same time he has bought 78 airplanes from the American company Boeing. It is possible that he can also combine his relationship with Iran and his entry into the Abraham Accords, the understanding between Arabs and Israelis, vital for international stability. Stability in the Middle East will not last long because there are now those who are very interested in making all kinds of profits from the violence unleashed between Israel and the Palestinian radicals of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, among other groups considered terrorists by many countries.

The provocation of entering the Al Aqsa Mosque with pyrotechnic material, sticks and stones achieved its goal of a violent eviction by the Israeli police. And from that moment on, rockets from Gaza, Lebanon and Syria into Israel and attacks in Tel Aviv and the West Bank. The forceful Israeli response against targets of terrorist groups also causes casualties at such a sensitive time as the Jewish Passover and Muslim Ramadan and, despite the restoration of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, or perhaps because of that, those who usually benefit from the business of violence throw all the fuel they can on a very dangerous fire. The political and social crisis in Israel over the Netanyahu government's intended judicial reform does not interfere with military decisions.