Alwaght- Nowadays, military capability boost along with economic growth and diplomatic dynamism make up the key factors for a country to move to higher global rankings, and this is shown by annual reports about the scale of the growth of various actors.
In a latest report published by Global Firepower, a website specializing in military affairs, West Asian countries are ranked in order of military power in 2022. Turkey, according to the report, ranks first, followed by Egypt and Iran. The Israeli regime that has always claimed to be a top regional military power is put in the fourth place. In the firth place comes Saudi Arabia, followed by Iraq, the UAE, Syria, Qatar, and Yemen.
In the annual ranking of military forces at global and regional level, Global Firepower relies on several factors, including the current state of military, financial, logistical and geographical power, and takes into account the size of countries and their technological progress.
Turkey and Egypt occupy the first and second places while they buy a large part of their weapons from the US and other Western countries and Russia, but the military achievements of Iran, which the Western media acknowledge its increasing power, are made domestically, and from this viewpoint, it is in superior position compared to other actors. Iran’s drone power is well-known in the world these days, and according to Forbes, Iran will become the exporter of drones in the world in the coming years.
The interesting point in the Global Fire Power report is that the armies of Syria, Iraq and Yemen, which have been struggling with many security crises in the last decade, are among the 10 most powerful and have even surpassed some of Arab claimers in the Persian Gulf.
Yemen army rises from ashes of war
In the new ranking, the Yemeni army is put in 10th place in West Asia, and this is an important point for a country that has been involved in a brutal war waged against it by the Saudi-Emirati coalition since 2015. Saudi Arabia and its allies tried to occupy this country by destroying the infrastructure of Yemen and destroying the power of the Ansarullah movement and to install a puppet and submissive government in Sana’a, but after eight years of devastating aggression, the army and popular forces of Yemen not only have not lost their strength, but also they have been able to strengthen their defense in the heart of the crisis, and all these victories have come under leadership of Ansarullah, which seized the opportunity to produce new arms using maximal facilities.
Ansarullah now has game-changing missiles and drones turning it into a nightmare for Saudi Arabia and the UAE. In its recent exercises, the Yemeni movement unveiled its new military equipment that can turn the tide in favor of the Yemenis. Falaq 1 anti-ship ballistic missile is one of these weapons. Among all the world’s military powers, only 3 countries, China, Iran, and now Yemen, are equipped with the anti-ship version of ballistic missiles. The new missile has a range of more than 200 kilometers and uses a warhead equipped with a thermalized optical seekers and can target any point in the Red Sea or the Arabian Sea with high precision. Ansarullah also has ‘Burkan 2’ and ‘Qiyam’ ballistic missiles, which have been used in attacks on Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Despite the sea blockade, Ansarullah built the ‘Asif 1’ missile-carrying boat, with high speed and high maneuverability, and it is thanks to these boats that Sana’a said that maritime security will be its priority in the future. The ‘Wa’id’ drone with a range of more than 3,000 kilometers and ‘Asif’ drone are another example of Ansarullah’s military equipment that can target any part of Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Not long ago, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy in a report listing the military power of Ansarullah called this movement the “second Hezbollah” in the region, with the power to change the war equations against the occupiers in its favor.
These Ansarullah achievements are made at a time Yemen has been under an all-out sea, air, and ground siege for over eight years, which means no aids are delivered from abroad. This, further, means that these weapon systems have been built relying on domestic power through and through. Ansarullah has now reached a stage where Saudi Arabia and the UAE that are equipped with the most advanced Western weapons are living in the panic of being attacked again. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are incapable of building smallest military equipment and depend on foreign countries to ensure their security, but Ansarullah has surpassed its enemies in this field. Although Ansarullah is at war, it managed to surpass such countries as Bahrain and Oman.
Syrian resurrection
Syria ranks eighth among the most powerful regional armies while since 2012 it has been fighting a litany of foreign-backed terrorist groups. The US and its regional pawns bent over backwards, through deployment of foreign terrorists to Syria and arming them, to topple President Bashar al-Assad and so eliminate one of the main wings of the Axis of Resistance— a bloc led by Iran and containing Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, and Palestine. But all these measures met their failure. The Syrian army fought for over a decade terrorists equipped with West-supplied heavy and semi-heavy weapons. It recovered from the impacts of the crisis, rebuilt its power, and is adding to its capabilities day by day.
In October, the Syrian army held its largest-scale military exercises since the eruption of the crisis in 2011, sending a message to belligerent Israel and West that it is breaking out of its defensive and is embracing its offensive position. The Syrian army also held joint military drills with Russian forces several times, signaling that Western push to undermine it has gone nowhere.
Syria is even equipped with Russian S-300 missile systems, destroying many missiles fired by Israelis. Although at the beginning of the crisis, a number of army personnel defected and many terrorist backers expected the military to fall apart, not so long after, the military recovered itself. In recent years, new forces have replaced the defected ones, and now in terms of the number of troops, Syria is in a superior position compared to the beginning of the crisis. Also, in terms of the number of tanks, fighter jets, and missiles, Syria has a better position than the countries ranking higher in the region.
Iraq in sixth place
Iraq, ranking sixth in the region, has been involved in wars and crises longer years than Syria and Yemen. It was occupied by the US from 2003 to 2011, and during this time, it had no army in the full sense because with the fall of the Baathist regime, the regular army was disbanded, and equipping and strengthening a new army was not an easy job. Although the army was expected to recover and regain strength after the US withdrawal in 2011, the attack of ISIS terrorists on this country in 2014 dealt another blow to the Iraqi military forces.
The army rebuilt itself after ISIS obliteration in 2017 and when popular forces joined its body. The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), which played a major role in rebuilding of Iraqi army, in recent years managed to secure considerable military breakthroughs. ‘Jamal 69’ ballistic missile, named after the PMF deputy commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, is among the most important achievements of the PMF. With a range of 700 kilometers, it can easily hit eastern Israel. The PMF displays its missile and drone achievements in military parades, worrying its enemy the US. Retired Iraqi Brigadier General Adnan Al-Kanani said earlier that the US and some regional countries insist on not arming the Iraqi army to block its rise to power among other world armies.
Recent report by Global Firepower indicates that Axis of Resistance members have top military ranking regionally. To put it differently, the Axis of Resistance has acted more successfully than other actors and managed to improve its military strength despite crisis rocking its members. Though the Western-Arab-Israeli triangle goes to great lengths to weaken it, the bloc remains the most power force in the region, changing all security equations. With Resistance camp improving its military position, the emerging regional order would be designed on the basis of active acting of this bloc, with the Arab-Israeli normalization far from being capable of impairing it.
