The ongoing wars and the United States’ unconditional support for autocrats, corrupt dictators and Israeli leaders lie at the root of instability in the region, says a former diplomat, who believes that the alternative is to develop effective and efficient systems for regional security and cooperation.
“The region is in the midst of two interconnected conflicts: one between regional powers, and the other between global powers,” Seyed Hossein Mousavian, a former spokesman of Iran’s nuclear dossier, said at a recent conference in Beirut to discuss security arrangements in the Middle East.
The roots of instability and conflict in the region today go back decades and there are three major sources contributing to regional instability, he said, according to a text of his speech published by IRNA on Tuesday.
“The first is the unwavering and unconditional support the US and other world powers have provided to corrupt dictators, such as the former shah of Iran or Hosni Mubarak, the former president of Egypt, and numerous other dictators in the Arab and Muslim world.”
These dictators have presided over conditions of poverty, unemployment, bad governance, and political oppression —which contribute to extremism and terrorism, he explained.
“The second root cause is that Washington has given carte blanche support to Israel as it has conquered, occupied, and annexed Arab land in violation of international law,” added Mousavian, a Middle East security and nuclear policy specialist at Princeton University.
The third cause of instability is the wars that have engulfed the region, he told the conference attended by 200 experts on political and security affairs.
Best Solution
There cannot be peace in the region unless there is meaningful cooperation between all major regional and global powers and foreign intervention ends, he noted.
“Their relations simply cannot be zero-sum. No side benefits from opposing mutually-beneficial cooperation. And there cannot be peace if major regional or global powers oppose it.”
Mousavian maintains that three major diplomatic moves are crucial to help alleviate regional crises and augment regional cooperation, peace and stability.
They all demand institutionalized “regional security and cooperation systems” between all powers in the region.
ECO
“The first is about the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), an organization founded by Iran, Turkey, and Pakistan in 1985. ECO should be expanded to deepen political, security and military cooperation in addition to economic relations. ECO today includes 10 countries with 470 million people in Eurasia. This union can be strengthened and modeled on EU structures.”
With deeper political-economic-security ties between its member states, it can turn into a bloc to reckon with that could help stabilize the region and project influence in Central Asia and the Caucasus, the former official said.
Persian Gulf States
Mousavian said, “The second would be establishing a regional cooperation and security system in the Persian Gulf.”
He said the feuds between regional countries, whether Arab-Arab disputes such as between Saudi Arabia and Qatar or Iraq and some of the Persian Gulf states or tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia can be addressed through such a mechanism, which can and should facilitate economic, political, regional, security and military cooperation.
“These states have two options, cooperation or continuing the status quo of confrontation. If they choose the latter, regional instability will increase, terrorist groups will be empowered, sectarianism will increase, and there will be a real risk of a disastrous war that will not only engulf regional powers, but possibly global powers—especially the US and Russia.”
The Persian Gulf states should pursue avenues of cooperation, Mousavian said, suggesting that their foreign ministers start direct talks “openly and without preconditions” and put their security concerns on the table.
Forum for Dialogue
“The third would be a forum for Arab and non-Arab dialogue. Other regional powers, such as Egypt, should have a role. To reduce the threat of sectarianism, Sunni-Shia dialogue forums should be set up that facilitate the participation of Sunni scholars from al-Azhar in Cairo and religious leaders from Saudi Arabia and other Sunni countries, as well as Shia authorities from Iran and Iraq naries.”
He added that any sustainable partnership between regional powers must be based on the principles of respect for sovereignty, non-use of force, respect for borders and territorial integrity, peaceful settlement of disputes and non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.
A gradual process must begin with regular meetings between representatives from these states—ranging from diplomats to civil society leaders, literati and academia, the expert said.
“Over time, high-level negotiations that allow the countries to understand each other’s security concerns can lead to a institutionalized cooperative relationship—similar to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and other similar systems elsewhere in the world.”
