News – Middle East: Palestinian writer and political activist Khaled Barakat, member of the Executive Committee of the Alternative Palestinian Revolutionary Path Movement, says developments across the region—particularly in the Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf—are an inseparable part of a US–Zionist imperial project aimed at consolidating regional dominance.

In statements reported this week, Barakat asserted that the Saudi regime is one of the main pillars and functional tools of this project, accusing Riyadh of playing a central role in undermining the Palestinian cause and facilitating the integration of the Israeli enemy into regional societies and markets.

He said Saudi Arabia has long acted as the “head of the snake” in an octopus-like operations room tasked with engineering and imposing normalization with the Israeli enemy on regional regimes and forces. Barakat argued that these efforts amount to a “political genocide” against Palestinian and Arab rights, aimed at dismantling Arab identity and crushing any revolutionary or liberation-oriented project seeking independence and sovereignty.

Barakat noted that during the ongoing war on Gaza, states and forces aligned with normalization—under Saudi sponsorship—have moved beyond silence to political and security complicity, providing regional and international cover for the crimes of the occupation.

He added that the Saudi regime’s destructive role is also evident in Yemen, through continued aggression and blockade that serve US and Israeli enemy interests at the expense of Yemen’s sovereignty and the right of its people to life and dignity. He further accused Riyadh of blatant interference in Lebanon, incitement against resistance movements, and fueling sectarian and confessional divisions.

Rejecting claims of Saudi “support” for regional causes, Barakat argued that the kingdom exploits the wealth of the region’s peoples, amassing hundreds of billions of dollars at the expense of their rights, resources, and natural assets.

He warned that one of the most dangerous tools of this project is Saudi-funded media, which he said an organized machine promoting defeatist and obscurantist narratives, distorting the image of resistance movements, and recasting the Israeli enemy from an occupying power into a “partner” and “ally.” He said this media campaign seeks to dismantle Arab public consciousness and erode popular rejection of normalization across Arab and Islamic societies.

Barakat concluded by stressing that confronting what the US–Israeli–Saudi project is not a temporary political choice but an urgent historical duty.

He called on the peoples of the Arabian Peninsula and all free forces in the Arab and Islamic world to break the barriers of silence and fear, expose the Saudi regime’s functional role and media apparatus, and engage in an organized revolutionary path to dismantle systems of dependency and normalization. He emphasized that the battle for awareness is a cornerstone of steadfastness, affirming that the will of the peoples will remain stronger than all systems of submission and dependency.In recent years, several Arab states have moved toward open diplomatic, economic, and security ties with the Israeli enemy under US sponsorship, a trend widely criticized by Palestinian factions and regional resistance movements as undermining long-standing Arab support for Palestinian self-determination. At the same time, Saudi Arabia has faced growing scrutiny over its role in regional conflicts, including the protracted war and blockade on Yemen, its political influence in Lebanon, and its expanding media and economic footprint across the Arab world. These dynamics have fueled debates over sovereignty, resistance, and regional alignment, particularly as Washington seeks to reshape Middle East alliances to counter rival powers and secure Israel’s integration into the region.