Financial Times Editorial - Lebanon crisis about to spiral out of control - US has allowed a dangerous diplomatic vacuum to develop
Financial Times Editorial - Lebanon crisis about to spiral out of control - US has allowed a dangerous diplomatic vacuum to develop
Published: July 17 2006 03:00 | Last updated: July 17 2006 03:00
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006
Israel's massive bombardment of Lebanon by land, sea and air in response to Hizbollah's cross-border raid last week is now about a great deal more than recovering two Israeli soldiers seized by Islamist guerrillas - and it probably always was.
Urgent and forceful diplomatic action is needed now if this crisis is not to develop into an anarchic, borderless free-for-all that will set new standards of violence even for the Middle East.
At one level, the conflict is but the latest round in the struggle between Syria and Israel, which occupied swaths of Lebanon for 29 and 22 years respectively and used it liberally as the main arena for proxy war. That may help explain the ease with which Lt Gen Dan Halutz, Israel's chief of staff, made his outrageous threat to "turn back the clock in Lebanon by 20 years".
Air strikes and artillery barrages, carefully taking apart the civilian infrastructure Lebanon put back after its 1975-90 civil war, are well on their way to achieving the general's aim, as well as killing scores of civilians every day. This use of disproportionate force is punishing the population of Lebanon - an act proscribed by the laws of war - for the criminal adventurism of Hizbollah and its sponsors.
Both sides, in different ways, appear to have been encouraged by the diplomatic vacuum that has developed in the Middle East. An under-examined reason for this is the debacle in Iraq, which, far from enabling the US topursue a radical new freedom agenda in the region (tough on terrorism, tough on the causes of terrorism) has paralysed the Bush administration. Washington, for example, recoiled from tough action against Syria even though there was an international consensus to pursue the regime of Bashar al-Assad for its role in the assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri, the former Lebanese premier, last year. Even though Syria was forced to withdraw from Lebanon, Hizbollah, its ally, remains the single most powerful actor there.
Israel also perceives the US to have lost its nerve about Arab democracy as votes flow to Hamas, Hizbollah and Iraqi Shia Islamists. It notes the discomfiture of Washington's Sunni allies, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, at Shia advances and Iraq's sectarian war and it is trying to persuade the world that Shia Iran is behind every leaf that stirs in the region.
Tehran, for its part, will not be unhappy with the perception that its Hizbollah allies can establish a balance of terror over the Lebanon-Israel border if the conflict over Iran's nuclear ambitions eventually turns violent.
The US and its Group of Eight colleagues need to damp down this conflict urgently before it spirals out of control. The short-term objectives are: a ceasefire; helping Lebanon to rein in Hizbollah and deploy its army on the border; and the international isolation of Syria. Longer term, the imperative is to re-engage in regional peacemaking.
Published: July 17 2006 03:00 | Last updated: July 17 2006 03:00
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006
Israel's massive bombardment of Lebanon by land, sea and air in response to Hizbollah's cross-border raid last week is now about a great deal more than recovering two Israeli soldiers seized by Islamist guerrillas - and it probably always was.
Urgent and forceful diplomatic action is needed now if this crisis is not to develop into an anarchic, borderless free-for-all that will set new standards of violence even for the Middle East.
At one level, the conflict is but the latest round in the struggle between Syria and Israel, which occupied swaths of Lebanon for 29 and 22 years respectively and used it liberally as the main arena for proxy war. That may help explain the ease with which Lt Gen Dan Halutz, Israel's chief of staff, made his outrageous threat to "turn back the clock in Lebanon by 20 years".
Air strikes and artillery barrages, carefully taking apart the civilian infrastructure Lebanon put back after its 1975-90 civil war, are well on their way to achieving the general's aim, as well as killing scores of civilians every day. This use of disproportionate force is punishing the population of Lebanon - an act proscribed by the laws of war - for the criminal adventurism of Hizbollah and its sponsors.
Both sides, in different ways, appear to have been encouraged by the diplomatic vacuum that has developed in the Middle East. An under-examined reason for this is the debacle in Iraq, which, far from enabling the US topursue a radical new freedom agenda in the region (tough on terrorism, tough on the causes of terrorism) has paralysed the Bush administration. Washington, for example, recoiled from tough action against Syria even though there was an international consensus to pursue the regime of Bashar al-Assad for its role in the assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri, the former Lebanese premier, last year. Even though Syria was forced to withdraw from Lebanon, Hizbollah, its ally, remains the single most powerful actor there.
Israel also perceives the US to have lost its nerve about Arab democracy as votes flow to Hamas, Hizbollah and Iraqi Shia Islamists. It notes the discomfiture of Washington's Sunni allies, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, at Shia advances and Iraq's sectarian war and it is trying to persuade the world that Shia Iran is behind every leaf that stirs in the region.
Tehran, for its part, will not be unhappy with the perception that its Hizbollah allies can establish a balance of terror over the Lebanon-Israel border if the conflict over Iran's nuclear ambitions eventually turns violent.
The US and its Group of Eight colleagues need to damp down this conflict urgently before it spirals out of control. The short-term objectives are: a ceasefire; helping Lebanon to rein in Hizbollah and deploy its army on the border; and the international isolation of Syria. Longer term, the imperative is to re-engage in regional peacemaking.
posted by Carlos T Mock at 10:47 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home