Biden says India-Middle East-Europe Corridor reason for Hamas attack: What is it?

The Israel-Hamas war continues to cause death and destruction – it’s the 20th day today. The genesis of this war is the audacious and daring attack by Hamas militants on 7 October; under the cover of rocket launches, militants entered Israel territory, killing at least 1,400 people and taking over 200 others as hostage. But the question as to why the Palestinian militant group chose to attack Israel then remains unknown. Until now. United States president Joe Biden, who has reiterated support for the country at war, has a probable reason as to why Hamas chose 7 October to attack Israel. Speaking to reporters at a joint news conference with the visiting Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese, the US president said that the recent announcement of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor that integrates the entire region with a network of rail, road and ports was one of the causes for the Hamas attack. “I’m convinced one of the reasons Hamas attacked when they did, and I have no proof of this, just my instinct tells me, is because of the progress we were making towards regional integration for Israel, and regional integration overall. We can’t leave that work behind,” Biden was quoted as saying. We take a closer look at what exactly is this corridor and why the war could endanger the progress made on this infrastructural project. The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEEC), explained The IMEEC – a major rail and shipping corridor connecting India with West Asia and Europe – was announced on 9 September on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in New Delhi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had then called the IMEEC a “beacon of cooperation, innovation, and shared progress.” Signatories to this multi-modal transport corridor are the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, the United States, Germany, France, and the European Union (EU). This project, being dubbed the modern day Spice Route, aims to connect India to the West Asia region and eventually Europe through a rail line and ports. As per plans, it would connect India’s west coast with the UAE by sea and a rail route crossing the Arabian Peninsula, with the Israeli port of Haifa as the endpoint. From Haifa goods are to be shipped to Piraeus in Greece, from which they would reach other European destinations by railway, road, or sea. Plans for the corridor also include pipelines for hydrogen produced in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, high-powered IT connections, and energy grids. [caption id=“attachment_13301292” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, US president Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are all smiles after announcing the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor during the G20 summit in New Delhi. File image/Reuters[/caption] At the launch, US president Joe Biden called it a “really big deal”. He said it would link across two continents and lead to a “more stable, more prosperous and integrated Middle East”. The European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen also said that the economic corridor was “much more than just a railway or a cable”. “It is a green and digital bridge across continents and civilisations,” AFP quoted her as saying. Chiming in, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud had added, “We forward to the integration of the initiative and the economic corridor project… I would like to thank those who worked with us to reach this founding step to establish this important economic corridor.”

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Why the corridor was hailed as ‘a big deal’ The rail and shipping corridor will not just advance economic growth but it has wider geopolitical implications. The project would allow the US to forge a wider diplomatic deal in the West Asia region which would entail Saudi Arabia officially recognise Israel, as per Reuters. “The deal will benefit low and middle-income countries in the region, and enable a critical role for the Middle East in global commerce,” Jon Finer, the US deputy national security adviser said earlier. For the US, he said, the deal helps “turn the temperature down across the region” and “address a conflict where we see it”, reported Reuters. According to AFP, the deal could include developing railway and port facilities across the West Asian region, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel, which may accelerate trade between India and Europe by up to 40 per cent. Most importantly, the project could be a counter to China’s Belt and Road – a vast infrastructure programme that has spread Beijing’s investments and clout across Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America. [caption id=“attachment_13301322” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] A banner depicting US president Joe Biden and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is seen as Jordanians gather during a protest in support of Palestinians in Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, near the Israeli embassy, in Amman, Jordan. File image/Reuters[/caption] The Israel-Hamas war and the IMEEC However, now with the war breaking out between Israel and Hamas, many experts believe that the IMEEC, which would have facilitated better ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel, won’t get off the ground. Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a Middle East fellow of the Baker Institute at Rice University in Houston, told South China Morning Post: “It is likely that the practical implementation of the corridor will be paused due both to the conflict and instability in the Israeli leg, and to the frictions in the Saudi- and Emirati-Israel components too.” Israel’s fierce bombardment of the Gaza Strip and the choking of the enclave have angered many Arab nations. In fact, Riyadh has led the pan-Arab crescendo of criticism, blaming Israel for the eruption of the Gaza conflict by saying the war is the consequence of its refusal to discuss Palestinian statehood. The UAE and Bahrain, which have normalised ties with Israel in recent times, have also condemned the actions of the Israeli military inside the Gaza Strip. An SCMP report further states that the Jordanian section of the corridor is even more vulnerable to public opinion because most of the kingdom’s population is ethnically Palestinian, including Queen Rania. Moreover, the attack on 7 October by Hamas has also led to mass anger in Israel, leaving no space for greater economic and political integration with Arab nations supportive of the Palestinian cause. In fact, following the war, Biden in the past few weeks has spoken to leaders throughout the region, including King Abdullah of Jordan, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi of Egypt, President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, and Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia about making sure there’s real hope in the region for a better future about the need to work toward a greater integration for Israel while insisting that the aspirations of the Palestinian people will be part, will be part of that future as well. With inputs from agencies