Palestinian-Israeli conflict to spur struggle between Shiites and Sunnis

Many believe that the escalation of the armed conflict between Israel and the Gaza Strip marks the beginning of the Third World War. Will the war between the Jews and the Arabs grow into a conflict between Muslims? Will Lebanon support the Palestinians? Why is Taliban* more dangerous now than ever before? Pravda.Ru asked these questions to Dmitry Bridge, an expert on the Middle East, a political scientist.

Photo: Openverse by alisdare1, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

"A hospital was struck during the escalation of the crisis in the Middle East, more than a thousand people were allegedly killed. President Putin suggested that the tragedy would sober up the feuding parties and force them to return to the negotiating table. Do you share this position or do you think that the conflict is going to escalate further?

"It is going to escalate further, because Hamas leaders call on people to take to the streets, protest against Israeli aggression, many even call for the slaughter of Jews not only in Israel, but also in other countries. This is an explosive reaction because there is an Iranian project in the Middle East that includes Hezbollah, Houthis, Hamas, and groups in Iraq and Syria. If all these groups now react to the actions of the Israeli army in Gaza, they will attack Israel. There are already military operations happening in Lebanon and Syria."

"Can Lebanon take part in this war?"

"Of course, it can, if Hezbollah decides to do so. However, the Lebanese are against it, they write on social media that this war will damage their economy, and the economy of Lebanon is far from being perfect.

"Hezbollah can not give any guarantees. Their mission is to support Hamas. They need to support what they refer to as "Palestinian resistance” in the Arab world, and "terrorist attacks” in the Western world. They believe in the Arab world that the Palestinians have the right to react to the actions of Israel because the latter has been suppressing and restricting the rights of all Palestinians for many decades, brutally."

"You are a Syrian. Do you think that Syria and Iraq could be drawn into this confrontation?"

"Of course, because Iran has influence on Syria and Iraq. This is a Shiite project. This is a threat to Israel and the West, because it runs counter to the interests of the United States. The Shiite project is in opposition to the Sunni one, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries. The Shiites used to support the US invasion of Iraq. They have changed their rhetoric now because they have already eliminated the Sunni regime of Saddam Hussein."

"He was brutal in relation to the Shiites during the ten-year Iraq-Iran war."

"This may happen now too.” A new conflict between the Sunnis and the Shiites may spark. There are Arab tribes in Syria who oppose the Kurds and even Iran. The Druze in the city of Suwayda in Syria opposed the Iranians. They say that Iran is a threat to them.

A new conflict may spark even between the Taliban* and the Iranians if they decide to fight for resources. It will escalate sharply, because the Talibs* of today are not the Talibs that they were in the past. Now they have good training, modern American weapons, helicopters, and enormous combat experience in the war with the Americans.

New wars may spark here and there. Many fear the phenomenon of the new Islamic resistance. This is what jihadist groups are talking about. If this happens, a new ISIS* may emerge.

*terrorist groups, banned in Russia