Once US President John F Kennedy remarked “One who controls the Middle East will control the world.”
The Middle East was once a jewel in the crown of the world but now it has turned into a cobweb of wars, conflicts, bloodshed, and hotbed of terrorist organizations. The world faces a grave threat spurring from Middle East to the security and peace. Has the Middle East always remained an incubator of terrorism and instability? The conflicts and instability are caused due to the lack of a genuine leadership.
This region has paramount religious, political, social and economic significance. The Middle East is the epicentre of civilizations, major religions, and diverse ethnic communities. The religions like Islam, Judaism and Christianity with high number of adherents originated from the lap of the Middle East. It has high quantity of oil reservoirs, mineral resources and communications routes. The central trade routes of the world pass through the Middle East like Strait of Hormuz, Bab-ul-Mandeb and the Suez Canal. These trade routes connect different continents like Africa, Asia, and Europe. The straits are also mandatory for navigation of the ships. Every Middle Eastern country is surrounded by water which increases its importance for trade. It is also an amalgamation of Arabs, Persians, Turks, Kurds, and Azeris and many other ethnic groups.
How is stability possible in the region if the Middle Eastern countries have locked their horns with each other?
The political system of the Middle East region is autocratic, despotic, and comprising of megalomaniac monarchs. Democracy and representation of the people have failed to prevail in the region.
The pivotal leadership role was played by Gamal Abdel Nasser, Hafez-ul-Hassan, Saddam Hussain, Yasir Arafat and Muammar Al-Gaddafi. They solely worked to promote Arab nationalism. The leaders fought wars with Israel many times to mitigate the miseries of Palestinians. Gamal Nasser played a vanguard role in the whole arena. Israel was given a temporary check on trampling the right of Palestinians. The anti-western element was highly entrenched in their minds so they expelled westerners from their countries. Yasir Arafat is known as the “Father of Palestinian Nation”.
All these leaders are lauded for bringing political and security stability in the Middle East. They were crowned at that time for bringing up Arab nationalism by inculcating the ideas of democracy. Unfortunately, having so much power and control over the region corrupted them absolutely. They started poking their noses in the affairs of other countries. The unwanted intervention in the affairs of each other led these leaders to part their ways. This amalgamation of leadership further aggravated the political and security situation.
After coming to power, most of the leaders in the Middle East region make great blunders and pushed their nations at the verge of devastation. Egypt was left at the mercy of America only because of the radical policies of its leaders and bloodiest wars with Israel. Libya was completely pulverised by the west only to remove Muammar Gaddafi. America declared war on Iraq only to take revenge from Saddam Hussain.
After the fall of all these influential leaders, the Middle East was divided on the basis of sectarianism, regional and global rivalry. The ‘Arab Spring (2011)’ which was sparked from Tunisia engulfed the whole region. The Arab Spring proved to be the final straw in the camel’s back. After the fall of regimes, now every country is in a state of war. Non-state actors found this region as the breeding ground for terrorism. Syria is fighting a civil war by pulverising its own country. Yemen is on the brink of the biggest humanitarian crises. Egypt, which was once guiding principle of the Middle East, is now a place unsecure for minorities. Iraq, after Saddam Hussain, has turned into a training centre of Non-state actors. Iran and Saudi rivalry is on the other hand, providing carte blanche to world powers to interfere. The Palestinians are being massacred at the hands of Israelis. The most damage to the Palestinian cause is done by the Arabs itself.
How is stability possible in the region if the Middle Eastern countries have locked their horns with each other? Once Premier of Israel Golda Mier said “Israeli are not enemies of Arabs, but Arabs are enemies of itself”.
The writer hails from Sibi, Balochistan. Currently pursuing Bs International Relations from QAU, Islamabad
Published in Daily Times, May 28th 2018.