The crisis in Syria is slowly becoming a regional conflict

A couple of months ago I wrote a post on the deteriorating civil war that has been taking place in Syria for almost two years. I discussed the lack of action by the international community in bringing in a resolution to the conflict and since then, the situation in  Syria and the region in general have not been getting any better, and the issue of the many differences between all sides in the conflict have not being resolved.
Unfortunately in the last few months since my last post on this issue, there has been more civilian deaths (over 80, 000) and President Assad tightening his grip on power.

In the last few weeks the conflict has further escalated internally with suspicion that the Assad regime has been using chemical weapons against his own people, although this has not been confirmed. The US and the UK intelligence agencies have stated that there is unconfirmed evidence that civilians have been attacked using nerve gas, but this has not led to further action by either country to remove Assad. Externally, the surrounding regions are slowly being sucked into the conflict, either on purpose or because they share a common border with Syria. On 11th of May for example, Turkey suffered a spate of bomb attacks in a town close to the border with Syria, for which the Turkish authorities blamed on the Assad regime. Also, only in the last days, Israeli defence forces have retaliated to gunfire from Syrian Army units in the Golan Heights. This incident comes in conjunction with Israeli air strikes on a  convoy, suspected of sending weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

From these events over the last few months, as the conflict in Syria gets worse, peace does not seem a likely outcome any moment soon. The international community keeps arguing that their hands are tied due to differences in how to solve the problems, and most nations are unwilling to risk a military intervention at this point.

The world needs to realise that the conflict is not just an internal affair any more, as the last few weeks have shown, Turkey, Israel and other countries in the region have been caught up in the politics of the civil war, and have at this stage refrained from escalating the situation, although, this could change if they are further provoked by the Assad regime and could turn into a regional war, if not resolved soon.  

Will the U.S Secretary of State Restart the Middle East Peace Process?

(Image source: WikiCommons | Credit to: US Department of State)
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry holds a meeting with the Arab League delegation, led by Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr Al-Thani, at the Blair House in Washington, D.C., on April 29, 2013.

The United States Secretary of State, John Kerry has held a meeting this week with Arab League members, to discuss the restarting of the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. 

Ever since the Israeli nation was formed in 1948, there has been on and off conflict between the Jewish state and the people of Palestine, leading to a number of major wars which have dragged other Arab nations into the dispute. Much of the issues concerning the conflict are on matters of religious differences, as Israel is Jewish and the Palestinians are Muslim. Also, land and natural resources have played a major part in fueling the distrust of both sides. Israel are unwilling to give up land that was taken away from the Palestinians in the 1967 war, arguing security concerns, and elements within the power circles of the Palestinian  community, want all of the Jewish lands returned to the Muslim peoples.  

The international communities, and more specifically the U.S, have over the last few decades been the third wheel in the process to bring peace to the unstable region. The last major attempt to bring long lasting peace was back in the late 1990’s, under the Oslo Accord, when President Bill Clinton almost negotiated an agreeable road map between the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) chairman  Yasar Arafat and the then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, however, many of the Accords principles, including ‘two state’ solution have not full progressed. Although, a Palestinian Authority (PA) was formed to allow the Palestinians limited self governance, many of the issues discussed in the Accords are still to be fully implemented.

Since the Oslo Accords no major attempts to bring an agreed solution to the conflict have aspired, as the U.S have concentrated their resources fighting the decade long ‘war on terror,’ and both Israel and the Palestinians have failed to overcome many domestic issues, which have stalled the peace process.

The attempt this week by John Kerry to meet with foreign ministers from Arab nations in the region, seems to me, emphasises the importance that these Arab states have in bringing both Israel and especially the divided Palestinians to restart concrete negotiations on a workable solution. I think this is a good first step by the new US Secretary of State to consult with regional leaders, rather than going straight to the Palestinians or Israelis. What needs to happen after this weeks meeting, is for Arab states to work in partnership with the US on bring both Hamas and Fatah to agree on working together to negotiate peace. If this situation can aspire, where both Hamas and Fatah can share governance over Gaza and the West Bank, Israel is more likely going to agree to negotiate a solution for peace.