Needed: Cool heads

Jan.31, 2007

Needed: Cool heads


WITH developments in Iraq since the US-led invation of 2003 going in Iran's way and the brewing crisis between the Beirut government and Hizbollah-led opposition plus whatever role the Iranians are playing in Palestine, fears are high of the region being destabilised further. Iran is riding high on its newfound status as a key regional power, raising concerns that it might want to pick up where it left off in trying to export its revolution in the early 1980s when it was checked by the war with Iraq.
We in the Arabian Gulf region want security and stability for all so that we could pursue long-term development objectives for our people.
We would like to see peace in Iraq, with the people of that country excercising their right to self-determination without external meddling and following their development agenda in a national framework after decades of strife and bloodshed.
We would like to see the feuding parties in Lebanon realising that their national interests are being shoved aside in their fight for power and authority, We would like to see them behaving in a manner that does not challenge the institutionalised democracy there or allow room for external intervention.
Similarly, we would like to see the Palestinian factions burying their differences and coming together on a common platform to face Israel and advance and realise their cause for liberation and independence.
We would also like to see the international community gathering enough courage and becoming bold enough to call a spade and spade and pull up Israel by the neck and force it to respect international law as the basis for a peace agreement with the Palestinians, Lebanon and Syria.
We are the least interested in challenging or confronting anyone for whatever reason. We believe in diplomacy, dialogue and fair and just compromises as the means to settle differences. We do not want nuclear weapons for ourselves and do not want atomic bombs or any other type of weapons of mass destruction in our region.
We believe that there is little time for us to be wasted in the development process as the world is moving fast ahead in developing and absorbing new technologies while we are getting bogged down by actions that are not of our making.
We would like to be part of the global development march but without compromising our rights as a member of the international order.
And we could gladly do without the sabre-rattling between Washington and Tehran that seems to be taking the region and its people towards yet another disaster after the war against Iraq four years ago.
After a brief hiatus during which we felt wisdom, logic and reason were prevailing in Washington against imposing a new crisis on the Middle East region, the Bush administration has suddenly turned up the heat against Tehran.
Hours after Bush pledged that he will “respond firmly” if Iran “escalates its military action in Iraq,” Pentagon officials leaked what they called “proof positive” of Iranian involvement — Iranian serial numbers were allegedly found on explosive devices powerful enough to pierce the armour of American tanks in Iraq.
If true and substantiated, then this "proof" is definitely more than the unfounded claims that Saddam sought nuclear material from Niger that White House used to help justify invading Iraq.
What are we to learn from the emerging scenario, which has also seen the US assigning two naval task forces into the Gulf region?
There could be several interpretations: Bush is again laying the foundation for military action against Iran or he could be setting up Iran to share the blame for the US failure in Iraq.
The latter scenario is highly unlikely, given that the Democrats and the growing anti-war camp would not swallow the line.
Washington watchers are convinced that the White House is spoiling for a fight with Iran, while Tehran seems to be inviting military action with provocative rhetoric probably because it believes that it could wage a successful "defensive" war against the US.
Sidelined in the seen and heard and unseen and unheard drums of war are the concerns of the region's countries which stand to bear the repercussions of another possible US military adventure. That Washington and Tehran share equal responsibility for pushing towards that eventuality would be no consolation, let alone a shield against the regional fallout of a US-Iranian military conflict, with whatever that would entail.
Instead of desisting from provoking Washington, Tehran seems is going out of its way to invite trouble without any consideration for the Iranian people and the region as a whole. It should realise that the need of the hour is for cool heads to figure out how to defuse the mounting tensions through dialogue and diplomacy in order to avert certain disaster.
On the other side, Washington should not consider the region's concerns over nuclear proliferation and the rise of a sectarian agenda as having granted it a free hand. Being the superpower that it is, it is incumbent upon the US to act responsibly and not to undertake any action that would undermine regional stability.
The Europeans also have a stake in ensuring regional stability in the Middle East and they should assume a key role in the equation and avert a conflagration that would not be in anyone's interest.
Haste is the key word here, because, for many in the region and beyond, the ticking of the war clock is getting alarmingly intense.