Opinion

World needs China to take up diplomatic gauntlet in Middle East

As it seeks to project itself as a major global power in contrast to the US, China would be well advised to review its tangible contribution to the global good

Beijing has a rare opportunity to explore options for lowering the temperature in the region, by first seeking to end the spiral of violence and enable tentative negotiations

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Commodore C. Uday Bhaskar is director of the Society for Policy Studies (SPS), an independent think tank based in New Delhi.

Published: 5:30am, 9 Feb 2024Updated: 6:04am, 9 Feb 2024

The UN Security Council emergency meeting, held on Monday at Russia’s request to deliberate the US military strikes against targets in Iraq and Syria – and the potential implications for peace and security in a region still reeling from the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel and the disproportionate reprisals – ended in an inconclusive but predictable manner.

The five permanent members stuck to their respective national positions – as is often the case when there is a sharp divergence between the United States and Russia – and there appears to be little light at the end of a dark, blood-spattered tunnel. An escalation stemming from miscalculation could have catastrophic consequences given the number of interlocutors in the turbulence that has engulfed the long-troubled Middle East.

The US justified the strikes as acting in self-defence after the killing of three of its military personnel at a US base in northeastern Jordan in a drone attack on January 28. It conducted 85 strikes on February 2 in Iraq and Syria against reported Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Forces and affiliated groups. Meanwhile, Russia and China both denounced the US response.