Habib C. Malik * - The Daily Star, 26 August 2006
Beirut - Iran`s month-long war with Israel on Lebanese soil has created significant opportunities for more ambitious and comprehensive progress on several pending Middle Eastern fronts. Eventually, the aim must be to secure the optimal conditions for a lasting peace between Israel and its two northern neighbours, Syria and Lebanon.
The prerequisites to reaching this objective are varied. They must entail a serious dialogue between the United States and Iran over the latter`s nuclear program and a host of related issues that include future Iranian influence in Iraq, Iran`s relations with Syria, and Iran`s support for Hezbollah. Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, writing on July 31 in The Washington Post, nearly said as much. American and European interests, not to mention the well-being of all Arab states, particularly in the Gulf, are best served through U.S.-Iranian dialogue, not confrontation.
An Iranian-American dialogue with a view to resolving peacefully the Iran nuclear issue is itself an indispensable requirement for the resumption of the Middle East peace process based on the tested principle of land for peace bilaterally pursued -- a kind of Madrid Two.
This time the carrots to be offered Syria in order to pry it loose from the Iranian clutch will not include a free hand in Lebanon, which proved a worse remedy than the disease it was intended to cure, even under the best-case scenario of benign Finlandisation. The nostalgia in some Israeli quarters for that cosy arrangement will have to give way to a new approach. By investing so much to remove Syria from Lebanon, the Bush administration is not about to reverse itself on the policy of containing Damascus. Nor is all the current positive international focus on Lebanon about to culminate absurdly in such a reversal.
Instead, Syrian cooperation must be rewarded with the ending of its diplomatic isolation paving the way for an avalanche of foreign investments, the softening of the impact of the Brammertz investigation, the opening up of Saudi coffers, and, eventually, the return of the Golan Heights in exchange for a full-fledged peace treaty, normalisation and security guarantees given Israel. In Lebanon`s case, the package leading up to final peace will include Israel`s yielding the Shebaa Farms, an exchange of prisoners, final demarcation of the Blue Line, making Israeli landmine maps available to the Lebanese and iron-clad security guarantees on Israel`s northern border.
Lebanon benefited from three factors as it endured the hardships and devastation of the war of summer 2006: overwhelming international attention and sustained support; no return to civil strife; and the absence of Syrian troops on Lebanese soil. While Lebanon`s internal politics remain fragile and vulnerable, it is not too late to broaden the base of political participation to make it more inclusive of large portions of the Lebanese communal spectrum that felt sidelined following the June 2005 parliamentary elections. Lebanon functions best when it strives for internal political balance among its factions and sectarian constituencies, something regrettably missing in the current political configuration.
Moreover, the prevailing tendency in certain quarters to continue to pick a fight with Damascus, despite Syria`s physical departure from Lebanon in April 2005, is unhealthy and counterproductive. If regional and international trends toward lasting peace gather momentum in the coming weeks and months, Lebanon stands a good chance of finally breaking that infernal cycle where it is periodically destroyed, thanks to time bombs like an armed Hezbollah or armed Palestinians embedded within its fabric, intended at a future date to ignite further cycles of violence and destruction. This vicious sequence no longer serves the interests of the big powers, least of all the U.S.
Rarely does a clear victor emerge after an asymmetrical engagement like the one that pitted Israel against Hezbollah. Hezbollah`s fighters no doubt performed well on the battlefield, but their "victory" was a Pyrrhic one at best given the incredible destruction that the party`s institutions and the Shiite community throughout the country endured. The myth of the "balance of terror", laboriously inculcated by Hezbollah into the minds of its young and impressionable followers has, one hopes, been shattered by the awful realities of what transpired on the ground. Not only Lebanon`s Shiites, but everyone in the country, paid too heavy a price and suffered grievously from this obvious imbalance in terror.
And yet, since we do live in a predominantly shame-based culture in which issues of honour, dignity and integrity permeate the collective psyche and determine individual as well as group mindsets, there is a benefit to be derived from cultivating a sense of victory among those of the weaker party. Negotiations resulting in enduring settlements of intractable disputes often occur following such feelings of triumph, whatever their validity. It is not so much a question of Hezbollah giving up its arms but rather yielding the decision to use them unilaterally, or according to the instructions of a foreign agenda, to the Lebanese government, of which the party is, and can continue to be, a part.
The silver lining in the inconclusive outcome of the recent clashes in Lebanon is precisely that new opportunities of historic proportions loom large on the horizon of the troubled Middle East. Momentous issues like an impending nuclear Iran and the potential loss by the U.S. to Russia of its European energy markets -- the U.S. now being the main transporter of petroleum products out of the Gulf -- make the swift and peaceful resolution of the outstanding conflicts in the eastern Mediterranean imperative. It is the challenge today facing bold and creative diplomacy to seize the moment and propel the region toward an era of lasting peace.
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* Habib C. Malik teaches history and cultural studies at the Lebanese American University, Byblos campus. He wrote this commentary for The Daily Star. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews)
