There is a growing consensus that the war between Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas is working to the advantage of Russia, which is tired of the prolonged war in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin attempted to justify his country’s invasion of Ukraine by claiming that the Middle East war was a foreign policy failure of the U.S. Joe Biden administration. There was even analysis that President Putin, who celebrated his 71st birthday on the 7th when this incident began, received an unexpected ‘birthday gift’ from Hamas.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky repeatedly expressed concern that a war in the Middle East could divert the international community’s support and attention to Ukraine. This is because U.S. support for Ukraine has already suffered a significant setback due to the impeachment of former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy on the 3rd, and we are now in a situation where we have to share U.S. support with Israel. The situation in the Middle East is expected to have a significant impact on the outcome of the war in Ukraine, which began with Russia’s invasion in February last year.
At the start of his meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani, who visited Moscow on the 10th, President Putin asserted, “Many people will agree that this incident is a clear example of America’s failure in the Middle East.”
He said, “The United States did not struggle to find a compromise that was acceptable to both Israel and Palestine. “They put pressure on both sides by imposing only their own views,” he criticized. It is claimed that U.S. President Joe Biden put undue pressure on the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia for diplomatic achievements ahead of the presidential election in November next year, and that Hamas launched this attack in protest.
According to the Kremlin, President Putin also exchanged opinions on the situation in the Middle East during a phone call with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Türkiye, and was particularly concerned about the rapid increase in civilian casualties. The two leaders also agreed that the only solution is an immediate ceasefire and resumption of peace negotiations. According to Reuters, President Erdogan joined in criticizing the United States for its full support for Israel, saying, “It will only lead to genocide in the Gaza Strip.”
Politico, an American political media outlet, diagnosed that President Putin was using this situation to his advantage, saying, “Hamas gave President Putin a gift.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov took advantage of this opportunity to advertise that “from a factual, emotional, financial and technical point of view, (Western) arms supplies to Ukraine will enter a downward trend.”
However, the international community’s antipathy toward Russia remains. Russia contested the elections for members of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on the 10th, but failed. Russia was expelled from the committee after its invasion of Ukraine last year. However, the New York Times commented that Russia was not completely isolated from the international community, saying that it received support from 83 countries that day. On this day, China succeeded in re-electing the board of directors despite suspicions of human rights abuses in Xinjiang Uighur and elsewhere.
On the same day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (left) met with Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu in Bucharest, the capital of Romania, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and urged the West to continue supporting the situation in the Middle East. AP NewsisPresident Zelensky clearly looks nervous. He repeatedly requested additional support, saying that if the international community’s support for Ukraine decreases, the West will also have to endure significant repercussions.
In an interview with France 2 TV on the 10th, he warned, “There is a risk that international attention will shift away from Ukraine, and that will come with a price,” and “Russia will benefit from the tragedy in the Middle East.” On the 11th, I decided to visit the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) headquarters in Brussels, Belgium for the first time since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
However, even within the United States, there are concerns that it is realistically difficult for the United States to support Israel and Ukraine at the same time. Politico said, “It is too early for the United States to spend large amounts of money on two countries (Israel and Ukraine),” raising the possibility that the unified support for Ukraine could be shaken, especially by the opposition Republican Party, which is critical of Ukraine’s support.
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Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.