Middle East in need of geopolitical approach towards solidarity

Tehran, Nov 22, IRNA – Addressing the dire situation in the Middle East requires the countries in the region to adopt a geopolitical approach towards regional solidarity as a feasible way getting out of the ongoing crises overwhelming the region. For many years, the Middle East has witnessed over-competitive and unconstructive rivalries among governments in the region, something that has turned the highly sensitive geographical domain into a hotbed of ethnic and religious rifts. While terrorism and escalating extremism are growingly gripping the region and dangerous and radical ideas by the Takfiri groups tend to spread their sinister roots, the affected Muslim nations across the Middle East should increase engagements and develop their cooperation to root out the hazard and common threats. Countries in the region, from Iraq to Syria and Yemen are engulfed in the flames of wars and a big number of innocent civilians, mostly women and children are killed on a daily basis in the conflicts caused by ethnic and religious differences. Undoubtedly, the insecurity and proliferation of terrorism are not going to solely trouble the Middle East and the world of Islam as they are spilling over the region to affect many countries and governments across the world. On the other hand, presently states in the region are not going to be sole players on the global arena as an array of players have emerged on the world scene to make even more complicated countering terrorism and extremism as the main challenge faced by today's world. It goes without saying that to address the current issues in the Middle East, we need to develop a thorough understanding of the nature and roots of these challenges. Among the main challenges, one is the inability of some of the governments in the region to address legitimate demands of their people. This, after all, tends to help promote extremism among members of the society who feel that to claim their rights they should adopt extremist approaches. The popular uprisings against authoritarian governments in countries like Egypt, Yemen, and Libya, known as the Arab Spring, all were the consequence of the people's determination to claim rights abolished by dictatorial regimes ruling them. And the violence thus created tends to be capitalized on by the extremists and terrorist ideas gradually taking root in the region. The another major problem severely damaging the region is attempts by some regional governments trying to fan the flame of ethnic and religious differences especially between the Shia and Sunni Muslims. This again tends to prepare the ground for extremist groups to exploit the unrests and promote their own cause. And above all, what needed to be given special care are the trans-regional trends affecting the Middle East. The Middle East, for long, has been the battlefield of foreign and particularly Western forces and clearly this establishes one of the main problems the region faces today. Regarding the present situation in the region and based on common sense, in order to solve the problems, countries in the region need to develop their cooperation. Despite all differences and ethnic and religious gaps among some countries in the region, they have no other way but to engage more and learn how to co-exist to open up more breathing space. The Middle East's geostrategic situation has turned the region into a cross section of the interests of the big powers. The best decision regional countries should make in the face of all the predicaments plaguing the Middle East is trying to adopt a geopolitical approach towards solidarity. 'We need to replace geopolitics of division with the geopolitics of solidarity, and geopolitics of surrender with the geopolitics of resistance,' Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said recently, during an address at International Conference On Geopolitical Crises in the Islamic World. 'We should promote peace in the face of violence and respect in the face of extremism,' Zarif said. Written By: Samaneh Sa'adat Translated by: Reza Bahar Edited by: Javad Baghaeenejad 1378/IRNA