A new regional order built around three maritime zones - the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf - should replace the fractured status quo in the Middle East. That is the central proposal of a major Foreign Affairs essay by Amos Yadlin, former head of Israeli Military Intelligence, and strategic affairs expert Avner Golov. They envision an American-led initiative that brings together Israel, key Arab states, and select European countries under a unified security architecture.
Writing in the May/June 2026 issue, the authors propose institutionalizing the ad hoc defense framework that emerged during the 2025-2026 campaign against Iran, "Hvylya" reports. When Washington began striking Iran in late February 2026, it coordinated air and missile defense, maritime security, intelligence sharing, and counterterrorism with Israel, Arab countries, and European states such as Cyprus, France, Greece, and the United Kingdom. These wartime practices should be expanded and formalized, Yadlin and Golov write in their Foreign Affairs piece.
Ambitions stretch well beyond military cooperation. Yadlin and Golov call for joint efforts on postconflict recovery, cyberdefense, and the resource challenges threatening regional stability - particularly energy, food, and water insecurity. Washington occupies a unique position to connect Gulf Arab capital with Israeli innovation and American industrial capacity, they note.
The strategic logic is straightforward. Gulf Arab governments spent years establishing diplomatic and economic ties with Tehran in the 2020s, but none of those linkages stopped Iran from attacking their countries. Their parallel efforts to build relationships with China and Russia - Iran's two main backers - also failed to provide meaningful protection. The war made one thing clear, they write: the United States remains the only credible external security provider in the Middle East.
Yadlin and Golov frame the initiative as a counter not just to Iran but to broader great-power competition. A formalized three seas framework would anchor the region more firmly to Washington at a time when Beijing and Moscow are seeking greater influence. Both see this as the foundation on which Arab-Israeli normalization could eventually be built - once political conditions on both sides allow.
"Hvylya" also covered how Beijing's silence on Iran has raised questions about China's reliability among its own allies.