BEIRUT (Dispatches) – Deputy secretary- general of Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement say the idea of formation of a so-called Middle East NATO is a new U.S. plot against the axis of resistance.
Referring to the efforts of some Arab countries compromising with the Zionist regime to form a military alliance, Sheikh Naeem Qasim said that despite the Zionist regime’s bid to pose threats against the axis of resistance, the resistance groups consider such threats as empty rhetoric.
“However, we are fully prepared and we are on full alert about the big maneuver and we are ready every day,” he continued, adding, “Today we are in our strongest position with our allies in Palestine and the axis of resistance.”
Meanwhile, the head of the political bureau of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas denounced as “very dangerous” normalization of relations between some Arab countries and the Zionist regime, stressing that full resistance is the only strategic option to confront the occupying regime.
Addressing the National Islamic Conference held in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on Saturday, Haniyeh said there is a plan underway to rearrange the region to suit the American-Zionist agenda, warning that such a plot serves the Zionist enemy as it seeks to fully integrate it into the region to confront the resistance front, Lebanon’s al-Ahed news website reported.
“What the region is witnessing is very dangerous. The ‘Israeli’ entity is being integrated into the region through military alliances to confront Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas,” Haniyeh said at the conference convened to discuss the efforts of the Israeli regime to expand its influence in the region through the normalization of ties and its negative repercussions on the issue of Palestine were discussed.
Haniyeh further called for supporting the resistance as a strategic option in Palestine and the region, and for restoring unity among the regional nations.
Jordan’s monarch has announced he would support the formation of a Middle East military alliance similar to the U.S.-led NATO.
Such a grouping could work with like-minded countries, but the military alliance’s mission statement would need to be clear from the outset, King Abdullah II told CNBC News.
“I’d like to see more countries in the area come into that mix. I would be one of the first people that would endorse a Middle East NATO,” Abdullah said. “The mission statement has to be very, very clear. Otherwise, it confuses everybody.”
Abdullah said he already saw Jordan as a “partner” of NATO, given the country has worked closely with the organization and its troops have fought “shoulder to shoulder” with the coalition forces in the past.
Jordan, a major non-NATO ally and frequent participant in military drills with the alliance, hosts around 3,000 U.S. troops and its Muwaffaq Salti air base was used as a launching pad for purported counterterrorism operations by the group in the region.
During the interview with CNBC, Abdullah also pointed to Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine and said the operation had already helped unite Middle Eastern countries.
“As well as security and military cooperation, a closer alliance in the Middle East could help to address the challenges arising from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, especially with regard to energy and commodity prices,” the Jordanian king said.
“All of us are coming together and saying ‘how can we help each other?’ which is, I think, very unusual for the region,” he added. “If I’m okay and you’re not, I’m going to end up paying the price. I’m hoping what you’re seeing in 2022 is this new vibe, I guess, in the region to say, ‘how can we connect with each other and work with each other?’”
Abdullah’s comments come as U.S. President Joe Biden prepares to visit West Asia as part of efforts aimed at normalizing ties between the region’s Arab countries and the Zionist regime, in addition to boosting Washington’s ties with its regional allies.
The idea of forming a “Middle East NATO” and a grouping similar to the U.S.-led military alliance has raised eyebrows among world leaders as the expansion of NATO has already wreaked havoc across Russia’s western borders.