Syrian conflict: US intervention may turn into a new cold war, says Mushahid

Asks US to uphold UN Charter and refer the matter to the United Nations.

ISLAMABAD:

Senate Defence Committee Chairman Mushahid Hussain Sayed has warned that the US invasion of Syria will further de-stabilise the Middle East and can spark a new cold war in South-West Asia. 

“I urge the US and all countries to uphold the UN Charter and international law and defer the matter to the United Nations as the Middle East region cannot afford a new war,” Mushahid said.

He was speaking at China’s Tsinghua University which had invited him to Beijing to receive an award for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Public Diplomacy’.

“Parliamentarians can play a positive role in promoting peace and shaping public opinion,” he said referring to the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee’s unanimous resolution passed on Tuesday to oppose attack on Syria.

Talking about Pakistan-China relationship, he said the relations between the two nations were now defined by three new realities.

“The first is the shift of the balance of economic and political power from the West to the East in the ‘Asian Century’, marked by China’s peaceful rise,” Mushahid said.



Secondly, a ‘Greater South Asia’ was emerging. “This includes not just the seven sub continental states; but also countries like China, Myanmar, Afghanistan and Iran, woven together with geo-economics promoting a new regionalism driven by energy and economy,” the senator said.

“However, the third reality is the ‘New Great Game’ which is now increasingly focused on containment and encirclement of China,” Mushahid said.

He said US planes were planned to be deployed in Australia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Trivandrum in southern India, according to an announcement by General Herbert Carlisle, Commander of the American Pacific Air Force Command on July 29, 2013.

“China poses no threat to any country but any new Cold War in the region may retard Asia’s rise,” he added.

Scholars, academics and former policy-makers from Pakistan’s top academic centres participated in the seminar, as well as five leading South Asian think tanks based in China.

Talking to The Express Tribune on his return from China, Senator Mushahid Hussain urged that think tanks, press and parliamentarians need to play a proactive role in this important ‘battle of ideas’ that is going on in the region.

In this regard, he referred to the efforts of the Pakistan-China Institute which, last month, co-hosted the first tripartite think tanks dialogue between China, Afghanistan and Pakistan in Beijing.

Next week, Senator Mushahid Hussain will lead a high-powered Senate delegation to Kabul for a four-day visit for the first defence and security dialogue between the parliaments of Pakistan and Afghanistan. This timing of this visit is important as it comes soon after the visit of the Afghan President Karzai to Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2013.