The West Asia region has historically played a primary role in shifting international geopolitical dynamics, due to its central geographical location at the heart of the world, its civilizational legacy, and abundant energy resources.

Peoples Dispatch spoke to Dr. Issam Khawaja, general secretary of the Jordanian Democratic Popular Unity Party (known in Jordan as Wihda Party), to discuss more about the factors that led to reaching the US-brokered Gaza ceasefire deal, its viability, and repercussions on the US vision for the so-called “New Middle East”.

Dr. Issam argues that the ceasefire deal was reached due to many factors, the most important of which was the steadfastness of the both Palestinian grassroots and the resistance in Gaza on the one hand, and Israel’s failure to achieve any of the goals of its aggression on the other. Other regional and international geopolitical factors have also contributed to sealing the agreement.

The legendary steadfastness of Palestinians in Gaza

Despite Israel’s horrific two-year genocide and systematic starvation, the Palestinian people and their resistance in the besieged Gaza strip have emerged invincible.

From Dr. Issam’s point of view, the Palestinian resistance insisted on maintaining its strategic conditions for reaching the deal, while showing flexibility regarding tactical issues, primarily the release of Israeli captives, which helped in obtaining US approval.

The Jordanian political leader also touched on the cruciality of the timing at which the agreement was reached. He maintained that the resistance was aware that a ceasefire was an urgent need for the Palestinian people after all the suffering and destruction.

Dr. Issam indicated that the deal was sealed at a very critical moment by which the issue of Israeli captives became obsolete.

“It was no longer a negotiating chip for the resistance, therefore, it made that concession at the most convenient stage of the negotiations,” he reaffirmed.

Khawaja hailed the firmness of the Palestinian negotiators, who were engaged in Gaza ceasefire talks since the beginning of the Israeli genocide on October 7, 2023.

“This time, the Palestinian negotiator represented a unique model of negotiations management throughout a long round of talks which lasted for two years. A model, which is totally different from the one that Palestinian officials who were involved in the Oslo Accords negotiations represented,” he emphasized.

“The Palestinian negotiators, who engaged in Gaza ceasefire talks, have proven to be steadfast, staunch and resolute. They have a firm belief that martyrdom is one thousand times better than making concessions in terms of strategic issues,” Dr. Issam continued.

Israel’s dismal failure in achieving the goals of the aggression

Khawaja pointed out that Israel failed to achieve its political, security, and military goals, which its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set at the beginning of the genocidal aggression on Gaza.

The Israeli government incurred that significant failure, despite committing a massive number of massacres to achieve those goals.

On the contrary, media reports indicated that the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have experienced a breakdown on the moral and operational levels in confrontation with the Palestinian resistance which has minimal military capabilities, but has enough willpower to continue fighting.

As a result, the US administration has become completely convinced that Netanyahu and the IOF were heading towards wasting more time, hindering President Donald Trump’s “abrahamic peace” project in West Asia, and the prospective economic benefits, which the US may gain out of it.

“Trump may have recognized that Netanyahu exceeded the timeline given to him to tip the scale in Gaza, so he asked his administration to intervene and put a limit for that,” Dr. Issam said.

“Washington dispatched its most prominent officials to Israel to work directly on protecting the Israeli entity from its leadership, which lost the initiative after it failed to achieve its goals, despite being provided with unlimited US support,” he added.

The Wihda party leader stated that more than 85% of Gaza has been destroyed, the infrastructure has been almost totally destroyed, health and educational sectors were devastated, with a drastic shortage in food and medical supplies, and great damage to the environment.

Israel became internationally isolated due to its crimes

According to Dr. Issam, Israel’s two-year live streamed genocidal aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza resulted in a reversal in the international public opinion towards Israel, leading to its isolation. This in turn was another factor that contributed to reaching the ceasefire deal.

“An international solidarity movement encompassing not only elites and young generations, but people from various backgrounds and ages in different parts of the world have been calling for a ceasefire, and for holding Israel accountable for its war crimes,” Khawaja said.

“This movement marked an unprecedented participation of anti-Zionist jewish groups, who held their First Anti-Zionist Congress in Austria’s capital Vienna in June 2025,” he continued.

Dr. Issam also cited a Washington Post poll, which revealed in October that 61% of Jewish Americans consider what has been perpetrated by Israel against the Palestinian people as war crimes, while 39% are convinced that they constitute a genocide.

“This is not a mere transformation in the international public opinion, but an international popular Intifada, which includes the anti-Zionist Jewish community, which existed before but became more organized and influential. For the first time the Zionist entity stopped being the sole representative of Jews over the globe,” Dr. Issam insisted.

“Israel’s image has been broken and its misleading narrative, which was constructed over 50 years before the Zionist state was established. Israel is not representing Jews anymore. Paradoxically, it became the least safe place for Jews in the world,” he added.

Trumps sought to end the war in Gaza to maintain US regional and universal interests

Dr. Issam believes that the Trump administration endeavoured to end the war in Gaza because of some regional geopolitical factors such as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, and the US plan to disarm Hezbollah in Lebanon, which are still unresolved and hinder Trump from implementing his vision for a “New Middle East”.

“Trump can not move to solving these issues without stopping the aggression on Gaza through a ceasefire deal,” Dr. Issam said.

In his opinion, Trump’s vision regarding West Asia has not transformed, but the Israeli genocide in Gaza has destabilized the region in a way that reinforced its importance in terms of geopolitical transformations worldwide.

Trump sees West Asia as a source of massive energy wealth, particularly the potential of oil and natural gas in Arab Gulf countries to enhance US investment, which, in turn, makes the region paramount for his primary battle and competition with China.

In order to reimpose its hegemony tightly over the region, the US should block the way in front of China’s new silk road, and the economic coalitions formed recently, like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), and BRICS, which many regional countries, including Arab Gulf states have joined.

These countries began to deal with currencies other than the US dollar, and tend to develop their economic relations with China, and Russia. Thus, Trump has sought to dismantle and undermine these relations and agreements to have West Asia under his control.

When it comes to Russia, being provided with the gas and oil from the Arab Gulf states region may give the US the opportunity to replace Russian gas supplies to European countries. By doing so, the US would be able to regain its influence on Europe, especially after the US failed to handle the Ukrainian-Russian war as Trump promised during his election campaign.

“Trump has already secured 5 to 6 trillion from Gulf states, but he is still expecting to get more. This makes the West Asia region an essential pillar in the US economic confrontation with Russia and China,” Khawaja explained.

Trump’s calculations regarding West Asia does not only include Gulf countries, but also Türkiye and Egypt, so his administration envisaged reaching a truce in Gaza to protect his alliances with these regional actors, in a way that serves US universal interests.

The viability of the Gaza ceasefire deal

Regarding the viability of the agreement, Dr. Issam expects this deal to persist for a longer period than the two previous agreements, though it may not be permanent.

Estimations vary on whether there will be further escalation from the Israeli side, which has already committed over 194 violations, but it is obvious that diplomacy, discussions, and negotiations have reached a deadlock.

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