By Owen Robertson, Stuff Writer
The world has seen a myriad of news coming from the Middle East this past week. Iran enacted a policy to cut off oil sales to Britain and France, the Syrian rebellion intensifying, and global pressure building on the Assad regime.
On Monday, Feb. 20, news came from the city of Homs that two journalists, a French photojournalist and a prominent American war correspondent working for a British newspaper were killed. The death of the journalists, during the 11-month long rebellion in Homs, brought greater media scrutiny of the rebellion. While the Syrian government continues the indiscriminate shelling of Homs the rebellion continues to use the Internet to deliver images of the rebellion. On Friday, Feb. 24, images came out of rebels gathered by the hundreds in the streets showing their support of the rebels. The global community continues to cry out to the Syrian government to allow humanitarian aid, but to date, the Syrian government has been non-responsive.
The Rebellion seeks outside aid, and the United Nations (UN) and the Arab League have agreed upon appointing former UN Secretary, General Kofi Anan, as a special envoy to Syria. It is hoped that Anan will be able to negotiate with President Bashar al-Assad for humanitarian aid and a cessation of direct attacks upon civilians.
“This situation is difficult for the West to respond to, the rebels in Syria are unknown to the West,” says Dr. Jack McTague, Professor at Saint Leo University and expert on Israel/Palestine conflict.
“No one knows who the rebels are and unlike the Libyan rebellion, Syria has a much stronger military. Any military action would certainly result in the loss of life to the forces involved in aiding the rebellion” says McTague, which would be unlike the Libyan conflict, in which not a single member of the United States military lost their lives in the air support campaign.
In Iran, the Oil Ministry announced on Feb. 19 that they were cutting off sales of oil to Britain and France in response to the United States and European Union’s increased economic sanctions. The sanctions which included freezing Iranian assets in the central bank, as well as an oil embargo set to begin in July, prompted the Iranian preemptive response of cutting off oil shipments to Britain and France. The West continues to mount economic pressure on Iran in the hopes of stalling the Iranian nuclear program.
On Feb. 20, inspectors from the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IEAE) arrived in Iran to conduct two days of talks and inspections of the country’s nuclear program. The Inspectors attempted to gain access to a military base suspected of being involved in nuclear weapons production, however, that access was denied. An Iranian envoy to the IEAE, on Friday, Feb. 24, announced that continued talks are needed between the IEAE and Iran.
Mounting tensions between Iran and the West regarding its nuclear program continue to create unease in the already war-torn region.
Syria and Iran represent continued hot spots in the region. While the world saw the Arab Spring in 2011 it appears that 2012 is beginning with the rumblings of war for a region already suffering from 10 years of conflict.
