What comes after the war ends?

The war has finally laid down its burdens, and a preliminary agreement has been signed between the United States of America and Iran. The two sides reached agreement on the points of contention between them after a prolonged confrontation in which they hurled many accusations at each other — some of which were inventions and speculation by the press, and some of which were a form of pressure on the other party to extract the greatest possible gains, a tactic known in politics as the finger-biting theory.

In the end, however, they reached the agreement that had the world holding its breath, under the pressure of the catastrophic losses suffered by Iran and the world as a result of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and its repercussions on energy prices, the disruption of supply chains, and the freezing of navigation through the world's most consequential strait — the Strait of Hormuz.

Now that the most destructive storm to have struck the region in recent years has subsided, what does the region await — its leaderships, its peoples, its economies, and its growth and development projects? What do we expect from those who attacked and did their utmost to sabotage our economies and infrastructure?

What guarantees of coexistence, good neighbourliness, and respect for the principles of peaceful coexistence must they offer? Will the world, through its international organisations, leave the field open for any state that possesses a destructive arsenal to toy with the security, economy, and interests of the region and the world whenever it wishes and however it pleases? Are we to live at the mercy of reckless adventures by failed and fascist regimes, with no legal or military deterrent?

And what of certain Arab regimes, certain leaderships, many intellectuals, social media figures, and parliamentarians who sympathised with Iran and portrayed it as a great, powerful system championing the nation and the causes of Arabs and Muslims?

When in truth it is nothing more than a fascist and failed regime that led its people through 47 years of reckless adventures and pointless wars with Iraq and the United States, squandering incalculable sums of money and leaving its people below the poverty line. How could rational, thinking intellectuals have viewed Iran through such a lens, without accountability or scrutiny?

And what of the Western press — British outlets in particular — that ferociously attacked and predicted the collapse of Gulf economies because of the recent war and Iran's missiles? Were they proceeding from studies and theories, or from personal agendas, grudges, and wishful thinking? What now, after the war has ended and the United Arab Emirates has emerged — the UAE in particular — stronger and more cohesive, as His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan said? What should we demand of them, or how should we respond?