Abu Dhabi, UAE (CNN) — Growing unease over the United States’ inability to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East is prompting some of Washington’s closest Arab allies to significantly increase engagement with its primary regional adversary: Iran.
Over the past few months, Arab nations have been leveraging their revived relations with the Islamic Republic to ward off a wider regional war as the US fails to contain an impending regional escalation.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken landed in Israel for his eleventh trip to the region in a year on Tuesday in an apparent effort to take advantage of the killing of Hamas leader and October 7 architect Yahya Sinwar to reach a ceasefire in Gaza. US officials, however, are tempering expectations as Washington’s calls for calm fall on deaf ears and Israel vows to push ahead with its wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
Blinken’s visit also comes as Israel prepares a responseto Tehran’s October 1 firing of hundreds of missiles in one …