Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and the new regional bloc

Written by Nasser Kandil,

There is no longer need to raise questions about the presence of an Iranian-Syrian-Iraqi decision of forming a new strategic bloc that considers all the differences in the situations of the three countries and the differences of their political composition in favor of the integration of their economic and service sectors, the harmony of their security policies and linking them with transport networks of international roads and railways, the linkage of their electric networks and their transportation, and the integration of their industrial, agricultural, and service products with their markets and needs. When this new bloc contains nearly two millions of population, economic capacities and enormous natural resources, diverse experienced workforce, broad markets, and tourist and consumption needs, then naturally its birth forms a source of salvation from the complexities of the  financial exchange imposed by the US sanctions.

The gradual birth of this bloc started after two summits; the Syrian-Iranian summit and the Iranian- Iraqi summit, its first step was through the meeting of the Chiefs of Staff of the three countries and their intention to secure the geographic connection between their countries on one hand, and the cooperation of their armies in ending the terrorist groups especially in Syria on the other hand. This bloc will impose escalating urgent challenges in front of the most neighboring countries which politically different  from this new bloc and which are governed  due to interests and neighborhood by inescapable considerations towards that bloc. At their forefront; Turkey which has a wide commercial trade with Iran and has common borders in which its security and politics are overlapped with these countries, and which shared the Kurdish concern with them will find itself concerned in searching seriously for a partnership to expand this bloc in a way that makes it a qualitative partner to expand the size of market and the tourism flows to these markets and to ensure a united treatment of the Kurdish issue. Jordan is concerned with its needs for oil resources and which looks to acquire more tourists, and Lebanon which aims at marketing its agricultural and industrial goods and acquiring more tourists despite the political pretention of cleverness of some Lebanese and the plot of some.

Practically and due to the absence of global center that is capable of leading the world economically, politically, and militarily after the American regression, new regional blocks will emerge. This is the situation between Pakistan, and Afghanistan towards China and Russia where they cooperate with Afghanistan politically and in security and cooperate in energy and the exchange of goods. This bloc which expands to include Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan attracts each of Russia and China. Russia is interested in the oil and gas pipelines and in generating electricity from the nuclear energy and selling it, and China is interested in the railway networks and in expanding the markets for its goods. Such bloc which will reach nearly three hundred million with these economic capacities will be equal to the size of Europe and America and will be affected by the commercial and economic world map, so imposing new equations must be considered well by Europe.

Practically, today the US sanctions form an incentive for the success of such bloc, and the decline of the status occupied by America in the global economics even if America technically remained the first economic country but it is going to lose it in front of China. The relationship of Europe with this new bloc will be different front its relationship with Iran. Logically it can be said that this bloc will be the only opportunity in front of Europe to face the threat of the economic depression and the industrial recession. When we say a new world will emerge, we do not mean only politically and militarily but also economically.

Translated by Lina Shehadeh,