A US-led war in Syria would destabilise a volatile region which is an important source of international energy supplies, and have a sharp impact on the world economy, especially for developing countries like India
A fresh US-led war, this time in Syria, may break out any time in disregard of UN processes. This would be dangerous. It would destabilise a volatile region which is an important source of international energy supplies, and have a sharp impact on the world economy, especially for developing countries like India.
The conflagration can suck in Iran on the Syrian side and have long-term political implications for the West as well as powerful West Asian states like Saudi Arabia. Traditionally, India has been on good terms with both sides, and a breakout of conflict would place New Delhi in a difficult position.
From the start of the two-year-old process that set off hostilities in the Syrian theatre, in which 100,000 people — most of them civilians — have been killed, many have felt that the Syrian regime was targeted by the West and its Arab allies as it was seen as an ally of Iran, which the West and dominant Arabs would like to see humbled for various reasons, some of which go far back in time.
War clouds have been gathering over Syria for about a year with President Bashar-al Assad’s government locked in stalemated military combat with rebels backed by significant Al Qaeda contingents and other Islamist fighters imported from neighbouring Iraq and other countries, including Pakistan.
Important Sunni Muslim Arab states and the leading Western powers had expected the Assad regime to collapse early. With that not happening, they increased financial, political and military support to the rebels. With even that not bearing fruit, the unverified charge of the use of chemical weapons against civilians by the Syrian regime is being sought to be used to permit the United States to begin the bombardment of Syria.
India should articulate its position against war in unhesitating terms and strongly urge not abandoning the search for a political solution. This search has been complicated by the desire of the Arab states, the Al Qaeda brigades, and the US, Britain and France in particular, for a regime change in Syria and the imposition of a leader who would be hostile to Iran, so that the balance of power in West Asia is significantly altered.
The US had gone to war in Iraq on false pretexts. So its insistence that the Assad regime used chemical gas against its own people, and the exoneration of the armed opposition on the same count, does not carry much conviction. As many as 116 US Congressmen on Wednesday asked President Barack Obama to get congressional approval before starting any new war. UN chemical weapons inspectors too must have a chance to decide which side in Syria used chemical weapons before further steps are contemplated.
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