Fear, Loathing Of U.S. Spurs Muslim Unity Among Old Enemies

by Mushahid Hussain

As the U.S. juggernaut casts its ominous political and military shadow over both allies and adversaries, these countries are taking small but deliberate steps, seeking comfort from each other by burying the hatchet over an embittered past.

Without openly confronting the United States, whose military presence stretches from the borders of Saudi Arabia to those of Russia, countries in the Middle East and South Asia are seeking to build durable ties with neighbors.

They are strengthening diplomatic positions and hope that these new linkages would be both a buffer and deterrent from U.S. 'encroachment' on their sovereignty.

A number of interesting recent developments testify to this little-noticed trend in regional politics.

First, there is the visit of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah to Moscow, the first since Foreign Minister Prince Faisal (later King) went there in 1926.

Second, there is Jordan's King Abdullah's journey to Tehran, the first since the Islamic Revolution overthrew the monarchy in 1979.

Third, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi has visited Pakistan and the two neighbors -- one a U.S. ally and the other a U.S. adversary -- agreed to cooperate and coordinate on Afghanistan by establishing a trilateral commission of three neighboring countries.

Fourth, noteworthy is Turkey's new 'Look East' policy, despite its being a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and a prospective candidate for European Union membership.

Already, Turkey has agreed to send troops into Afghanistan and Iraq, a move indicative of a rediscovery of its Islamic roots plus a broadening of foreign policy options.

A common element driving these developments is the unstated fear of the United States and its preponderant military presence in the region, with virtually all of these countries 'feeling the heat' of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001.

All these countries opposed the U.S.-led war on Iraq with varying degrees of intensity. They have great concerns about the future of both the region they are located in and the future of U.S. designs there, particularly the growing feeling that Washington is eyeing the area's rich natural resources like oil and gas.

It is not surprising that Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi was in Crown Prince Abdullah's entourage to Moscow, and that the centerpiece was a five-year agreement on 'strengthening bilateral cooperation with the goal of ensuring stability in the global oil market'.

This is significant given that Saudi Arabia is the world's largest oil producer while Russia is the biggest energy producer outside of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

In short, two kinds of visions, world views and regional orders are almost in competition.

One is something that the United States would like, reshaping the Middle East political map by changing the status quo as it has done in Afghanistan and Iraq, is trying to do in Palestine and would probably like to do as well in Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iran.

The other, driven by fear of the United States, has led regional states to revise their long-held foreign policy assumptions by reaching out to former adversaries -- Saudi Arabia to Russia, Jordan to Iran, Iran to Pakistan, Turkey to the Arab world.

These countries hope to get more 'political space' so that their interests are protected by deterring an intrusive U.S. approach.

In the process, they would like to be able to lean on institutional structures like the United Nations, the European Union in the case of Turkey, the Economic Cooperation Organization for Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Afghanistan plus the Central Asian states or even the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), which Russia is keen to link with, on the plea it has 20 million Muslims.

Interestingly, in the aftermath of the failure of discovery of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq - the pretext on which the United States waged war in the first place - the issue of the Israeli nuclear programme, the only nuclear weapon state in the Middle East, has also come to the fore.

For instance, in the joint statements issued after the Pakistan-Iran talks, the Saudi-Russian talks and the Jordan-Iran meeting, all supported the establishment of a 'nuclear weapons free zone in the Middle East'.

This, however, is something that Washington opposes because it would mean having Israel's covert nuclear arsenal, plus its entire weapons of mass destruction programme, coming under international scrutiny.

Ironically, while the United States opposes a nuclear-free Middle East, it supports a nuclear-free Korean peninsula since that would effectively bar Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.

In effect, countries in the Muslim world are taking a position against the selectivity and duality evident in Washington's approach to nuclear weapons, saying that Israel is exempt and that the pressure is instead directed only against countries like Iran, Syria or North Korea.

One positive aspect of the increased regional rapport is that past cleavages will give way to cooperation.

For instance, the Iranians have moderated their stance toward the pro-Western monarchy in Jordan. Pakistan and Iran feel they have no fundamental conflict of interest in Afghanistan after the Taliban's ouster.

Turkey would feel greater comfort that its Kurdish rebels will not get succour and support from across the border as was suspected in the past.

Significantly, the Saudis have made clear their support to fighting 'international terrorism'. By meeting the Moscow-nominated president of Chechnya, Ahmed Qadrouf, Crown Prince Abdullah conveyed his recognition of Russian sovereignty over Chechnya, a Muslim-majority region that has been devastated by fighting.

He also invited Qadrouf to visit Saudi Arabia. Russia also expressed its eagerness to affiliate with the OIC as an observer, a position Saudi Arabia does not oppose.

Given the changing geopolitical landscape and the United States' isolation as it sinks deeper into the Iraq quagmire, these emerging relationships are reshaping the region politically.

Furthermore, they are going in a direction opposite to what Washington would desire -- because it seeks its own political restructuring of the region, post-Iraq and post-Afghanistan.