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Deal-Making in the Middle East

(Asharq Al-Awsat-UK) Amir Taheri - Deal-makers who try to solve the "Middle East problem" often sacrifice the existential reality on the ground to the essential abstraction of elusive ideals. There are many reasons why so many deal-makers have failed. The first is that peace is never negotiated and is always imposed by the side that wins a war. There is not any instance in history, which is primarily a narrative of countless wars, in which an outsider has imposed peace on unwilling belligerents. Deal-makers do not fully appreciate the importance of the status quo, the reality on the ground. Whenever a status quo is at least tolerable for both belligerents, the desire for risking it in the hope of an ill-defined peace is diminished. Many people in the world live with a status quo they don't regard as ideal. Russia and Japan coexist, trade with each other, and maintain correct relations despite being technically at war after the Russian occupation of chunks of the Kuril Islands. China and India coexist despite the Chinese annexation of large Indian territories along the border. By one count, 89 of the 198 members of the UN are involved in territorial disputes or are home to restive, sometimes secessionist, minorities. If we add irredentist claims rooted in history, almost all UN members are in dispute with their neighbors. I haven't met a Mexican who didn't think that California and Texas belonged to Mexico. The writer was the executive editor-in-chief of the Iran daily Kayhan from 1972 to 1979.
2018-03-02 00:00:00
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