Speak about international relations in the Middle East and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

December 26th, 2011

The Middle East is a political and cultural subregion of Asia, which is a predominantly Muslim, Arabic community. However, the area encompasses many distinct cultural and ethnic groups, including Indians, Arabs, Greeks, Jews, etc. In the middle of the 20th century the Middle East has been an extremely sensitive area in economical, political, cultural and religious respects. It possesses huge stocks of crude oil and is the birthplace and spiritual centre of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Politically, it has been a region of great turmoil. Ongoing concerns include the growth of Islamic fundamentalism, religiously inspired terrorism and conflicts between Israel, the west Bank and Gaza Strip. The last two are the center of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Palestinian-Israeli problem is one of the most ancient problems in the Middle East. There is a number of factors which prevent the international community from successful settlement of this conflict. They are the restraint of terrorists from the Organization of Palestinian deliverance, the religious crisis and other particular circumstances. The USA is trying to resolve the problem by permanent attempts of intervention, but Palestine and Israel seem to be the only two countries able to come up with the crisis.

The region of Middle East include such countries as Iraqi, Pakistan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Republic, Gemen, Bahrein, Cater and Afghanistan as well. Russia is interested in a stable and progressive socio-economic development of these countries and all the Middle east in general.

There is a new challenge for the modern world community coming from the region international terrorism of religious, ethnic and ideological character. The Islamic movement in this region was born in 1928, when an illegal organization called Muslim brothers were permitted to use all the methods accessable, including terrorism. Actually the organization embraced all the Arabian countries and became a world-scale community. Today it has branches and cells in almost every Muslim country, as well as in Europe and USA. The next stage was the foundation of the political union of Muslim nations. The idea was expressed in the creation of the Islamic Conference s organization. Since 1992 the terroristic war has grown on a large scale, and actually captured not only the East, but also the rest of the whole world. In this respect, it should be mentioned that on may, 23 in 2003 a number of countries, and first of all the USA and Great Britain sent their troops to Iraq, having declared it a peace-keeping operation . Thus, the so-called peaceful campaign resulted in destruction of a country, which has always been one of the major oil suppliers, as well as in infringement of the UN Charter principles and the security Council s resolution. And this makes quite a dangerous precedent in an international society.

The region of the Middle East has a particular meaning to Russia s interests. Moreover, actve participation in its affairs is natural for our country because of geopolitical position. That is why Russia is engaged in resolving the Middle East s problems by means of various international mechanisms such as the Middle east Quartet.

The 1948 Arab-Israeli War is referred to as the “War of Independence” or as the “War of Liberation” by Israelis. For Palestinians, the war marked the beginning of the events referred to as “The Catastrophe”. It was the first in a series of wars in the Arab-Israeli conflict. It established the state of Israel as an independent state, dividing the remaining areas of Palestine (the Gaza Strip and the West Bank) into areas controlled by Egypt and Transjordan.

In 1949, Israel signed separate armistices with Egypt, Lebanon, Transjordan, and Syria. Israel was generally able to create its own borders, comprising 78 percent of Mandatory Palestine, 50 percent more than the UN partition plan assigned it. These cease-fire lines were known afterwards as the “Green Line”. The war caused the first wave of refugees. In total, the belligerents waged 5 wars since 1948.

In 1964 the Arab states established the Palestine Liberation Organization, headed consequently by Yaser Arafat, who also created the secret militant organization to fight against Israel.

The six-day war of 1967 between Israel and neighboring Arab states brought a great victory to Israel, who won back the Gaza Strip, the Sinai, the Golans, the Eastern Jerusalem and the Western Bank.

In the 70-s, the PLO under the auspices of Arafat organized a series of attacks on Israeli and foreign objects. During the Olympic Games in Munich in 1971 the attacks of the Palestinian terrorists brought death to 11 Israeli sportsmen.

In 1974 Arafat came forward with a peace initiative. His speech appeared to be a turning point in the struggle of the Palestinian people for the right of self-determination. The peace negotiations initiated between Egypt and Israel, through the intercession of the USA, entailed the famous agreement, signed in Camp-David, which obliged Israel to return the Sinai to the Egypt.

Afterwards there were numerous attacks and bombing. Many militant organizations, that emerged in the 60-70-s, pose a real danger and bring armed conflicts and death.

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Date: 2015-01-11; view: 1068