The destruction of Syrian chemical weapons (CW) has started. In a breakthrough moment in Iran-US relations, the two presidents talked on the phone and the foreign ministers sat down to discuss Iran’s nuclear programme. Though the connection has received little comment in the Western news media, these two welcome developments are deeply linked and close to inter-dependent.
How has this linkage come about and what is its effect? There are two components to the answer. The first lies in the nature of Middle Eastern politics and the second in how we got to a UN agreement on Syrian CW disarmament.
Only see the connections
In the Middle East, everything is connected. The North American and Northwest European habit of separating things into neatly compartmentalized topics just won’t work there.
When George W. Bush and Tony Blair were trying to stitch together a persuasive looking coalition for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, they were told in no uncertain terms, the road to Baghdad leads through Jerusalem. They didn’t – or were politically unable – to get it and consequently the invasion of Iraq lacked all legitimacy in the market places of public opinion in the region. That meant even pro-US and anti-Saddam elites could not support it. And thus the politics of the action unraveled before the action itself got under way.
In years gone by, sheer power allowed the West to impose its fractured view of the region. Distortions of perspective mattered less than force and money. Now that the power is diminished - though not, at least for the US, by any means at zero level – the connectedness of the region has to be respected.
This is not the way most Western politicians, officials and commentators have been brought up to see the region. And it is not the way they have been brought up to see their power. Habit gets in the way of clear vision.
Source: The trust
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