If you thought things in the Middle East couldn’t get any crazier, you were wrong. From riots in Egypt to Syrian defiance of the Arab League, and even to Libya and its spoils of war, this region has had quite an eventful week.
Egyptians are rioting in Tahrir Square, and are calling for the military to transfer power to a civilian, elected government. What’s the problem, you ask? Well the military —the only legitimate governing body at the moment in Egypt— has a monopoly over the use of force and can use it anytime. This may have been effective a few months back with the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak; however, it seems to pose a major problem for the political development of the country.
Over in Syria, President Bashar Al Assad and his regime continue to defy the Arab League’s call for peace and halts to civilian deaths. While Assad is concerned for Syrian sovereignty, the Arab League seemed to be the West’s only organization which may have had the chance to penetrate the Syrian crisis in a positive way. A draft resolution presented in the U.N. Security Council and backed by Western states which would condemn the violence in Syria has been vetoed by both China and Russia, proving interests in terms of trade and historical alliances —Russian and Syria— are so far still coming in handy for the Syrian president, who made it clear that “Syria will not bow down and that it will continue to resist the pressure being imposed on it.” I wonder if the Syrians are aware of their “solidarity” with Assad. Regardless of this supposed resistance to pressure, so far, this conflict has left 3,500 people dead.
Finally, the son late Libyan President Muammar Ghaddafi, Saif Al-Islam Ghaddafi, has been captured by rebel insurgents and has been flown from the site of capture to a different Libyan city. While the West urges that he be handed over to the International Criminal Court for trial, most Libyans feel he must be tried in Libya. Since Libya currently does not have the means to carry out a proper hearing due to dysfunctions in the judicial branch, or a government to carry out the court case, the Libyan resistance’s insistence seems futile—an attempt to scapegoat and keep focus away from progress and security.
While most were in support of revolutions across the region, even experts were unable to predict the effectiveness of said revolutions and what the outcome of each one would be. The revolutionary spirit itself may have been a domino effect, but the externalities which may potentially be caused by this continued instability will undoubtedly be much greater for both neighboring nations and the region. Whether its strengthening the Arab League or its U.N. involvement (which is currently looked down upon due to the post-colonial past and present of many of these Arab nations), some sort of order needs to be restored to the region before the chaos spills over and begins to affect more than just trade and regional interests of the West.
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