India has recognised that West Asia is not a single contest, but a tangle of rivalries, bargains and anxieties. Comment.

The statement is accurate, and the evidence is that the region's fault lines cut across one another rather than aligning into two camps.

The overlapping cleavages.

• Israel and the Arab states, where the Abraham Accords of 2020 normalised relations with the UAE and Bahrain, while Gaza has since made further normalisation politically costly.
• Saudi Arabia and Iran, a rivalry with sectarian, strategic and oil dimensions, which the Beijing-brokered restoration of ties in 2023 softened without resolving.
• Within the Gulf, the blockade of Qatar from 2017 to 2021 showed that the Gulf Cooperation Council is not a bloc.
• Turkey and the Arab states, over the Muslim Brotherhood, Libya and eastern Mediterranean gas.
• Proxy theatres in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, where the same actors appear in different combinations.
• External powers, with American commitment perceived as declining, Chinese economic penetration deepening and Russia present through Syria and OPEC+ coordination.

How Indian policy reflects the recognition. India has built separate, insulated relationships rather than choosing a camp:

• With Israel — defence technology and counter-terrorism.
• With the Gulf Arab states — some nine million Indian workers, the largest remittance source, energy imports, and the strategic partnership with the UAE that produced the comprehensive economic partnership agreement of 2022 and I2U2.
• With Saudi Arabia — energy, investment and the Strategic Partnership Council.
• With Iran — Chabahar port and access to Afghanistan and Central Asia, maintained despite sanctions pressure.
• With Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority — historical ties and development assistance, alongside consistent support for a two-state solution.

Assessment. India's approach works because the region itself is not organised into two sides; de-hyphenation is possible only because the tangle allows it. The risk is that a wider war would force alignment, and Indian interests — energy security, the safety of the diaspora and the shipping lanes — would then be exposed simultaneously.