Gaza War Redefined Regional Politics I Amaresh Misra

October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel — what was the mood before that? What was the mood on October 6, 2023? The mood was that Mohammed bin Salman was preparing, Saudi Arabia was going to be fully modernized by 2030, the entire Gulf countries had nothing but money, nothing but oil. The Abraham Accords were going to keep expanding. There would be a settlement with Israel. Palestine had gone — that issue had gone onto the back burner. All the Gulf countries were moving forward. Iran, well, Iran is isolated. Then October 7 happened, and everything changed. October 7, 2023 happened, and now, as of 15 July 2026, everything has changed. In today's situation, the GCC countries are floundering. They cannot even understand this much — that the economic road map we had imagined, once that is finished, then what do we actually have? We don't have any military power. There's no way we can become anything else. One effort was being made — that apart from oil, we should become an electronics hub, a software hub, an AI hub. Big American companies had set up there. Iran scared them all away.