Arabs will have to stand alone
atimes.com
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - With the ongoing unrest in Israel and Palestine causing Arab nations to increasingly focus on foreign policy, it is becoming clear that they lack a united military front to engage Israel should they be pushed into doing so, and they will be left by non-Arab Muslim countries to fight any battles on their own.
Even while many Arab leaders, including the anti-West Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, want a truce between Israel and the Palestinians, agents of unrest both within and beyond the region are creating an atmosphere in which fighting is likely to spread over Palestinian borders very soon.
The fervor being generated by the battles in Palestine, which is sacred to Muslims, Jews and Christians, could set off unrest in many nations. The million-dollar question is whether, should another Arab-Israeli war become a possibility, will non-Arab Muslim countries rally to the Arab cause, or will they stay with the US coalition of which many of them are a part?
The Lebanese Hezbollah, which is supported by Iran and highly infiltrated by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, has already opened a war front against Israel. Its guerrillas have taken positions and started attacks on Israeli soldiers with rockets and mortars. Hezbollah is now receiving strong support from Iran and Syria. Sources in diplomatic circles believe that Iraq is also giving its support to Hezbollah, both in terms of material and human resources.
These sources are convinced that the way things are proceeding in the Middle East, whether Arab countries want to or not, they will be dragged into escalating warfare outside the boundaries of Palestine. Many forces are at play to make this happen, beyond just the Hezbollah. Militant groups exist within most Arab countries, while externally groups such as al-Qaeda can be expected to make every effort to spread the war.
The Arabic daily al-Heyyat claims that it has received a letter from bin Laden dated March 26 in which he tells Palestinians that he has reached a safe haven and he will start his struggle anew. True or not, this will doubtless fan the flames of discontent within the Arab world. This is reflected in the Arab press in such state-controlled publications as the Arab News, the Saudi Gazette and other mass newspapers, all of which all are full of stories of Palestine and which plug the anti-Israel line.
But even if the Arab countries could agree on a common military front to attack Israel, they would lack the muscle unless supported by the likes of the non-Arab Muslim countries of Pakistan, Turkey, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Turkey's standpoint is clear. Post-World War I, it has kept aloof of Arab issues, and especially Palestine, because of the Arab role against Turkey and its alliance with Britain.
Indonesia is now firmly in the US camp, while the comments of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia at the recent Organization of the Islamic Conference meeting in Malaysia made it clear that he opposes what he termed the suicidal attacks of terrorism.
Pakistan has traditionally had a significance position in the Islamic world. Before 1971, it was the largest and strategically most important Muslim country and it is still the only nuclear power among Muslim states, with a large and well trained army. But Islamabad has visibly moved towards the Western block since September 11. President General Pervez Musharraf has often said to his cabinet that the Arab world has never supported Islamabad over Kashmir, so Pakistan would define its priorities according to its own interests.
A former high-ranking Pakistani foreign affairs official and former senator, Akram Zaki, told Asia Times Online recently that a delegation of US senators met Musharraf at the beginning of the year and urged him to to establish diplomatic relations with Israel. Musharraf declined, saying that Pakistan would take its time in taking such a big step. Significantly, the current Middle East conflict is the first in which Pakistan has been very quiet, other than that one mild statement from the Pakistani Foreign Office. At the same time, the US State Department recently lauded the goodwill between Israel and Pakistan.
The new global order after September 11 suggests signs of an Arab resurgence but it seems that Arabs will have to arrange their own gunpowder in any broader war in the Middle East. >>>> |
