The US needs to win the Gaza War to destabilize BRICS to carry on with the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) proposal presented in September at the G20 meeting in New Delhi.
Veteran geopolitical analyst Pepe Escobar told the New Rules program that the Biden administration needs an Israeli win in Gaza to undercut BRICS and other economic integration initiatives headed by Russia and China.
“This is an American diversionist tactic to once again go against BRICS multipolarity, especially given the fact that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates now have a very graphic, tangible opportunity to link themselves to the birth of the new Eurasia when they become members of BRICS,” he said.
Escobar pointed out that the US and Israel presented the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) proposal in September at the G20 meeting in New Delhi. According to Escobar, the project aims to make Israel a major hub for logistics and energy while eschewing China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
The Syrian Arab Republic has put forward an initiative to tackle the long-standing justice gap in international law by proposing the establishment of a global tribunal for chemical weapons.
Notably, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu displayed a map of the “New Middle East” devoid of Palestine during his speech to the UN General Assembly later that month. As Escobar put it, this was no accident.
“The impression that [Netanyahu] gave all of us who follow international relations is that they created this IMEC idea on the fly and they needed to start implementing it in some way. And part of it was ‘Okay, let’s rekindle the war in Israel-Palestine because then we offer the Israelis or the Israelis offer themselves the possibility of solving the Palestine problem.’ Because this comes with another element: the Ben Gurion Canal, which is an old idea first floated in the 60s of building a canal where Israel has control and not the Egyptians. So you transfer all the connectivity and all the trade from Suez to the Ben Gurion Canal.”
Escobar forecasted that the Biden administration is unlikely to give up on the IMEC plan, despite the Israeli government coming under increasing pressure from throughout the world for its conduct in Gaza.
“This [conflict] proves once again that the US will never leave West Asia…The region is absolutely essential for the empire, considering that the Americans are being slowly, but surely and very forcefully expelled from the big Eurasia by the Russia-China strategic partnership – by their trade deals, their multilateral organizations and economic integration projects. All that goes completely against American domination of Eurasia.”