No one thought that Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel would lead to the horizontal expansion of a war. The West Asian geopolitical architecture stands on cosmic stories. Palestine has been revered for centuries as a sacred land by followers of the Abrahamic faiths, and for millennia, countless wars have been fought over it. History demonstrates that Palestine is no longer merely a piece of land but a geopolitical entitlement central to maintaining strategic leverage in the West Asian region.
The cosmic narrative has now taken a horrific turn, exploiting Casus Belli provided by Hamas. At its core lies revisionist Zionism, envisioning Israel’s sovereignty over the expanse between the Nile and Euphrates and the territory proclaimed as the “Land of Israel”.
Israeli hardliners found an opportunity to pursue these long-standing ideas more aggressively. Israel’s campaign in Gaza quickly expanded beyond a response to Hamas. Public statements by some Israeli politicians calling for the permanent annexation of Gaza and relocation of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip reinforced perceptions of Greater Israel objectives. At the same time, continued settlement expansion in the West Bank heightened fears that annexation could eventually extend to that region.
The war also engulfed Lebanon into the broader picture. Israel perceived Hezbollah attacks as an immediate security threat; therefore, it expanded military operations in southern Lebanon, and indirectly it acted on the agenda of Greater Israel. Syria became the clearest example of this approach. After the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government, Israel launched hundreds of airstrikes that destroyed much of Syria’s remaining military infrastructure. Israeli forces then moved into parts of Southern Syria. These actions left Syria unable to rebuild its military strength or negotiate with Israel from a position of sovereignty. Israel expanded into a security vacuum that its own military operations had helped create.
Events in 2025 and 2026 completely altered the strategic environment; the Israeli military campaign was meant to be waged against Hamas only. However, after the Hamas attack, the old cosmic inspiration got new momentum. Through coordinated Strikes alongside the U.S military, Israel weakened Iran’s regional resistance network. It precipitated the collapse of Syria’s military, thereby securing control over the strategic territory and positioning itself as the sole regional hegemon.
Pakistan, along with brotherly Muslim countries, pushed for mediation by President Trump and instituted the Gaza Peace Plan, which guaranteed that neither Gaza nor the West Bank would be annexed and that Palestinians would not be dislocated.
June 2025 war against Iran represented another major turning point. Israel claimed that Iran’s nuclear program posed an existential threat and secured U.S. participation in military operations against Iran. After declaring success against Iran’s nuclear capability, Israel pushed for another major military campaign against Iran in February 2026. Washington pursued limited military objectives while Israeli conduct of war reflected much broader objectives, not limited to Iran but igniting a regional war.
These attacks engulfed the whole Middle East in the fires of war. For decades, Gulf monarchies hosted American military forces in exchange for protection against aggression. An American-sponsored defense shield failed to protect the Arab nations from Iranian missile and drone attacks. Therefore, the perception emerged that Washington is more committed to defending Israel than its Arab partners.
Israel expected Kurdish groups to open another front against Iran, drawing Türkiye into a wider regional confrontation by creating a new theatre of conflict along its southern border. The Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly one-sixth of the world’s oil passes, became a major security concern. Fighting intensified in Lebanon, while Syria again found itself caught between competing military campaigns.
Israeli hardliners expected conflict to draw Gulf States into direct war with Iran. A prolonged confrontation among the region’s major Muslim states would have thrown the whole Middle East into chaos, creating widespread instability, allowing Israel to consolidate territorial gains while expanding into the resulting vacuum.
It has been reported that Pakistan recognized Israel’s sinister designs much earlier in the conflict. Islamabad worked closely with Saudi Arabia and encouraged Riyadh to avoid direct military involvement despite Iranian strikes on Saudi territory. Saudi Arabia’s decision to stay out of the conflict compelled other smaller Gulf Cooperation Council states to avoid escalation.
Pakistan then joined Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Türkiye in actively pursuing de-escalation and diplomacy, preventing the crisis from developing into a much wider regional war. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Qatar emerged as key diplomatic actors. This timely action avoided a regional catastrophe.
On March 29, Pakistan hosted a quadrilateral meeting in Islamabad with the foreign ministers of Türkiye, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan. The meeting brought diplomacy back into the crisis. Pakistan announced a ceasefire after intensive diplomatic efforts led by Chief of Defense Forces General Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Islamabad hosted the first round of the Islamabad Talks and proposed a 45-day roadmap calling for an immediate ceasefire, followed by the phased reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
The peace efforts were instrumental in stopping further expansion of war. The Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding helped preserve Lebanon’s sovereignty and temporarily halt Israel’s further territorial expansion. De-escalation produced a more durable understanding between Iran and Gulf Cooperation Council states, preventing broader regional collapse anticipated by Israeli hardliners. Israel remained frustrated as it had expected the collapse of Middle Eastern states, similar to Syria.
Diplomacy by Pakistan, together with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Türkiye, helped prevent further escalation at a critical moment by keeping diplomatic channels open when the region stood on the brink of a much larger conflict.
In the post-conflict settlement, Washington proposed expanding the Abraham Accord by encouraging Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Türkiye and Pakistan to normalize their relations with Israel. However, Pakistan maintained its principled stance, and Pakistan’s foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, clearly mentioned that Pakistan would never become a part of such an accord until the just settlement of the Palestinian people. Again, the phrase “Abraham Accord” is also rhetorical and rests in grand cosmic story, and uses religion for geopolitical leverage to gain legitimacy.
On July 9, 2026, the U.S hit 90 targets in Iran despite a ceasefire, and in retaliation, Iran also targeted U.S bases across the Gulf region. The question of pragmatism and realism is central to U.S foreign Policy, as it has surrendered all its rationale for Israel, and the Middle East will not remain the same after the conflict.
