West Asia crisis

Sir, - It's ironical and regrettable that Jerusalem - the holy city of three major religions of the world, Christianity, Judaism and Islam - has been reduced to a gory battlefield and is today witness to one of the bloodiest battles of the world. Just when a peaceful settlement to the West Asian crisis seemed to have been round the corner, Mr. Ariel Sharon, the hardline Israeli Opposition leader and Chairman of the Likud party, in an obvious attempt at making a statement to establish Israel's sovereignty over the contentious Al-Aqsa mosque, made the now infamous visit to the site on September 28 and virtually ignited the tinder-box that West Asia is today.

The recent spate of terrorist acts like the suicide bombing of the American naval destroyer, the USS Cole, at Aden killing 17 American sailors and the alleged killing of an American-born Rabbi, are all indicators that the West Asian crisis has serious global ramifications. Pessimistically speaking, it might even be a precursor to another polarisation - with the U.S. and the West including Russia on one side and the Islamic nations on the other.

Though the U.S. has been playing the role of an `honest broker and negotiator' to defuse some of the high voltage tension in West Asia, the Palestinians seem to have some misgivings that its stand might be biased with a pro-Israeli tilt and, this is entirely not without reason given the fact that the Clinton Administration is being bulldozed by the powerful Jewish community of the U.S. to back the Israelis. This is apparently why the U.S. is not entertaining the Palestinian officials' demand that the U.N. Security Council constitute an international enquiry commission to look into the causes of the conflict. It has even threatened to veto any new resolution that the Council might make on this issue.

A helpless U.N. in its turn, albeit acknowledging the fact that it was Mr. Ariel Sharon's visit that provoked the conflict, stopped short of passing any new resolution for constituting an enquiry commission that would go into the causes of the conflict. With the Israelis accusing the Palestinian leader, Mr. Yasser Arafat of having instigated the violence, the Palestinians' demand for an international enquiry is obviously to exonerate Mr. Arafat of these charges.

The fact that Chechen rebels are threatening to send militants to West Asia to help Palestinians fight Israel might deter Russia from supporting the Palestinian cause. (`Chechen rebels to fight Israelis' The Hindu, October 16). In all, a solution to the murky West Asian crisis seems a distant dream today.

Nalini Vijayaraghavan,

Thiruvananthapuram

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Opinion
Previous : The feminisation of poverty in Bihar
Next     : Menace of pollution