Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 11
By Azer Ahmadbayli – Trend:
I failed to find a word of praise for President Donald Trump in the world media outlets, when he canceled a missile strike on Iran in retaliation for the downing of an American drone. Everything I read about Trump's decision ranged from surprise to mockery of the US weakness.
It was a good example showing the existing sentiments of people who shape up public opinion.
Deep mistrust, a knife in the back, eye for an eye - these are trends that have long become the norm in the foreign policy of many countries and political leaders, condemning the world to permanent conflicts and wars. This is particularly evident in the Middle East.
When one of the branches of the American government condemns Saudi Arabia for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and the other branch continues to have business with it, it does not cause any emotions and is perceived as something ordinary.
Iran’s nuclear agreement has also been originally woven out of the patches of suspicion and mistrust.
“The JCPOA does not rely on trust – it is rooted in the most far-reaching inspections and verification regime ever negotiated in an arms control deal,” former US President Barack Obama said at the time. President Trump expresses himself similarly: “At the heart of the deal was a giant fiction.”
The same can be heard from Iran’s leaders: “I said many times from the first day: don't trust America. Now it has been said that the deal will continue with the three European countries (France, Germany and Great Britain). But I don’t trust these European countries either,” Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei said after the US withdrawal from JCPOA.
The recent rapprochement of some Arab countries with Israel raises doubts about the sincerity of their intentions. There are many people in Israel who are convinced that Saudi Arabia and some other Gulf countries do not really seek peace with Israel. All they want is to use Israel against their common enemy, Iran.
If not for the fear of Iran’s expansion, they even wouldn’t have thought of peace with Israel, some believe.
To show the true attitude of the Arabs to Israel, it is enough to recall expressive words of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi about the Six-day war: “This battle is not yet over.” This is said by Egypt, which has the “best relations” with Israel among all Arab countries.
The Arab states, however, are suspicious of each other too. The UAE and Saudi Arabia, which have been the two closest Arab allies in the region, are starting to show cracks in relations caused by the conflict of interests in Yemen.
Recently, the President of the Saudi-American Public Relations Affairs Committee Salman Al-Ansari, has implicitly accused UAE of betraying their common interests in Yemen for its expansionist ambitions, describing it as “treason.”
Jordan bewares of getting a knife in the back from Riyadh, by losing the status of the guardian of the Muslim shrines of Jerusalem in the framework of the peace plan of the United States, which reportedly demands to transfer this status to the Royal house of Saud.
Children of slain Iraqi Sunnis, including supporters of the Islamic state, who are now 8-10 years old, grow up in refugee camps in inhuman conditions. Their mothers will tell them how and why they ended up there. When they turn 20, they will feel the need to exact revenge.
These fragmented examples were the first to come to mind, and along with dozens of other ones, they create an overall picture of the fierce struggle of all against all (with the participation of external forces) for the possession of a power and material goods, which is the source of the great suffering for peoples of the region.
According to our knowledge of history, the Middle East or some parts of it, resembles Europe during the Early Middle Ages, in a way.