(Text/Fan Shuai Shuai Wang Jian Pan Xiaojing)
Recently, serious bloody clashes broke out in the capitals of Libya and Iraq. Although the direct cause of the conflict is the intensification of contradictions between the political factions in the two countries, its root cause lies in the evil deeds of the United States in launching war against Middle Eastern countries and interfering in their internal affairs. At the same time, in Syria, which has suffered from more than a decade of war, US sanctions have made the livelihood of ordinary Syrians more and more difficult. It can be said that the United States is the initiator of the current chaos in the Middle East, and the bane planted by the United States in the Middle East is still constantly bearing evil results.
Iraq: "American reform" has led to political instability
Recently, bloody clashes broke out in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, killing dozens of people. Analysts pointed out that the fierce struggle between various political forces in Iraq over the stalemate in the formation of the cabinet is only the superficial cause of the current conflict, and the United States, which launched the Iraq War and single-handedly led the political reform in post-war Iraq, is to blame for iraq's political instability and social unrest.
In Baghdad, where temperatures often approach 50 degrees Celsius, barricades to the National Assembly building are scattered on the side of the road, and tents with colorful placards are propped up under the parliament building and on the nearby streets. People eat, live, sleep in tents, and even set up small stalls to do business, and when they arrive at the meal, they huddle together in front of the cauldron rice stalls, and the noise is continuous...
This is the view around the National Assembly building in Baghdad's "green district" a few days ago. The people in the tents were supporters of Shiite leader Sadr, who stormed parliament in late July, halting it and "sitting in protest" near it for a month. Since then, a wave of protests has spread to several other provinces, but there have been no large-scale clashes overall.
At the end of August, the situation changed suddenly. On the 29th, Sadr posted on social media that he decided to withdraw from politics and that the relevant institutions of the "Sadr Movement" led by him would also be closed. Sadr's remarks sparked outrage among supporters, leading to a sharp escalation of protests that had lasted for a month. In the face of the chaotic situation, the Iraqi authorities began to impose a nationwide curfew at 7 p.m. on the 29th. Until the morning of the 30th, suspected gunshots and explosions could be heard in the center of Baghdad, and 4 missiles of unknown origin fell into the "green zone", causing damage to buildings. On the afternoon of the 30th, at the appeal of Sadr, his supporters gradually withdrew from the "green zone", and at the same time, the curfew in Iraq was lifted.
The street clashes in Baghdad, which killed at least 22 people and injured more than 200 others, have eased the situation in the capital since then, but protests and even bloodshed have not completely disappeared.
The direct cause of the recent protests in Iraq and the conflict it has sparked is the partisan stalemate in Iraq that has lasted for more than half a year. The current Iraqi Government has repeatedly tried to mediate, but the results have been limited.
On June 12 this year, members of the "Sadr Movement" resigned en masse due to the failure to form a majority government as desired. Former Prime Minister Aliki's camp became the largest party in parliament. Maliki's deliberate selection of a new prime minister was opposed by Sadr. Since then, Sadr has repeatedly asked for the dissolution of parliament and re-elections, but this demand has been rejected by Maliki's camp. This has led to demonstrations by Sadr supporters across Iraq since the end of July, followed by bloody clashes.
In the view of Iraqi political analyst Sajad Giyad, although Sadr claims to "withdraw from politics", this is likely to be only a temporary measure, and given that the current conflict is still deeply divided, it is unlikely that Iraq will break the political deadlock in the short term.
By digging deep into the political and social roots of the current situation, Iraqi analysts have pointedly pointed out that the partisan rivalry in Iraq, which has lasted for several years, is closely related to the political system imposed by the United States on Iraq and inconsistent with the actual national conditions.
In 2003, the United States invaded Iraq, destroying the country's original political ecology. Since then, under the leadership of the United States, Iraq has established a political decentralization system based on a quota system, in which the president is a Kurdish and the prime minister and speaker are Shiites and Sunnis, respectively.
But now, not only is there a "big fight" within the Shiites over the selection of the prime minister, but there are also contradictions within the Kurdish camp. After the Iraq war, there was a tacit understanding within the Kurdish camp that the leader of the Kurdish autonomous region was a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), one of the two major Kurdish political parties, and the President of Iraq was a member of the Kurdistan Patriotic Union, another major political party. In recent years, the KDP has wanted to elect its own person as president, so the two parties have been at loggerheads.
Iraqi political analyst Ali Moussa pointed out that this simple political design that emphasizes decentralization is actually easy to incorporate some incompetent and corrupt people into the government, resulting in the failure of government functions. The U.S. "did not propose a construction plan at all, but a 'destruction' plan", a system based on sectarian and ethnic divisions that eventually led to the fragmentation of Iraqi society and frequent conflicts.
Turkish political analyst Sinem Djingiz has previously written that the Iraq war launched by the United States destroyed most of the local state apparatus, and these institutions have not been well rebuilt since then, creating favorable conditions for foreign intervention, including the United States, and making the local political situation and various socio-economic policies very variable. He pointed out that the "proxies" of the United States, mainly and partly including Europe, Iran and even Turkey, basically manipulate Iraq's politics, economy and security, making it difficult for Iraq to achieve political and social stability under multi-party intervention. It turns out that what the United States ended up bringing to Iraq was chaos.
Syria: U.S. sanctions have cried livelihoods
Since the outbreak of the Syrian crisis in 2011, the United States has actively intervened in the Syrian situation and tried to "transform" Syria. However, to this day, peace has not yet arrived, and the livelihoods of ordinary Syrians have become more and more difficult.
After the outbreak of the Syrian crisis in 2011, the United States targeted the Syrian government and allowed armed groups to obtain funds and weapons, but after the rise of extremist groups, they called themselves the vanguard of counter-terrorism, exposing the short-sightedness and hypocrisy of its policies.
In August 2014, the United States began airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq, and in September of that year, the airstrikes were extended to Syria, and in the same month, the United States launched an international coalition against the Islamic State. The Syrian government believes that the move is not authorized by the UN Security Council and accuses the US-led airstrike of causing a large number of civilian deaths and injuries.
Ahmed Ashkar, an expert on Syrian political issues and a senior media personality, said that since the beginning of the Syrian crisis, the United States has been bent on subverting the Syrian government, implementing irresponsible regional policies, acquiescing to and even supporting the entry of all forces into Syria, responsible for the rise of extremism, and after 2014, it has claimed to be the vanguard of counter-terrorism, making the syrian situation more complicated through actual military presence and making it more difficult to achieve a political solution.
Syrian political analyst Osama Danura said that the displacement and casualties of civilians caused by the airstrikes were one of the human rights violations committed by the United States in Syria, but the United States only regarded the casualties as "collateral damage". He cited the northern Syrian city of Raqqa as an example, saying that the US military operation had almost destroyed the entire city.
In addition to military intervention, the United States has long imposed severe economic sanctions on Syria and has continued to increase its weight. At the end of 2019, the US Congress passed the Caesars Act and was signed by then-US President Trump, which set up many obstacles for foreign investors to invest and build in Syria, and further strengthened the economic blockade against Syria.
Affected by sanctions, the reconstruction process of Syria has been repeatedly blocked. The rapid depreciation of the Syrian pound, the overall rise in prices, and the containment of economic sanctions have led to setbacks in the production and operation activities of local enterprises and businesses, and the stranding of foreign investor projects, which in turn has further caused a shortage of material supply and the expected strengthening of the depreciation of the Syrian pound, forming a vicious circle.
Ashkar pointed out that the United States has imposed economic sanctions on Syria for a long time, and in recent years, it has been escalating, making the Syrian economy, which has been hit hard by war and epidemic, even more withered, and the vast majority of the Syrian population is currently living below the poverty line, and basic livelihood services such as water, electricity, and medical care cannot be guaranteed, and ordinary people have become victims of sanctions.
In an interview, ICRC President Peter Morel said that due to the impact of protracted conflicts, large-scale displacement, external sanctions, and the COVID-19 pandemic, most Syrians are facing the most severe humanitarian, economic and social conditions since the outbreak of the Syrian crisis.
In addition, in recent years, the Syrian government has repeatedly accused the US military of stealing and transshipping oil in northeast Syria.
The Syrian Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources recently issued a statement saying that in the first half of this year, Syria produced about 14.5 million barrels of oil, with an average daily output of 80,300 barrels, of which only 14,200 barrels were delivered to Syria's official oil refineries, and another 66,000 barrels were "extracted from occupied oil fields in the eastern region by the US military and its supported armed forces", accounting for more than 80% of Syria's average daily oil production.
According to a statement by the Syrian Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, from 2011 to the middle of this year, the illegal stationing of the US military in Syria and the illegal mining and illegal trade carried out by the armed forces supported by it have caused direct and indirect losses of 107.1 billion US dollars to the Syrian oil, gas and other industries.
Libya: The "color revolution" brought endless darkness
On August 26, a new round of armed conflict broke out in the Libyan capital tripoli, killing 32 people and injuring 159 others. Eleven years after the "color revolution", Libyan society, which was once rich, is still in turmoil, the regime is divided, and the economy is in difficulty.
In 2011, a "Jasmine Revolution" swept through the Middle East and North Africa, and as a result, anti-government demonstrations against the Qaddafi government broke out in Libya, which subsequently evolved into a "color revolution" due to the support of many Western countries for the opposition. After the overthrow of the Qaddafi regime, the Western powers, led by the United States, did not fulfill their commitments to support reconstruction, but instead entrusted the task of reconstruction to Libya's National Transitional Council, which had no political experience and internal power struggles.
After the war, the international community, led by the United Nations, led the political reconstruction of Libya on many occasions, was eventually interrupted by armed conflict. Under the good offices of the United Nations, the two sides of the Libyan conflict signed a permanent "ceasefire" agreement in October 2019 and agreed at the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum in November that Libya would hold presidential and parliamentary elections on December 24, 2021. In March 2020, the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum elected the Libyan Unified Interim Administration, the Libyan National Unity Government (i.e., the Transitional Government), and Abdul Hamid Debba was elected Prime Minister of the Libyan Transitional Government.
However, just two days before the presidential election, Libya's Electoral Commission proposed postponing the presidential election, which was scheduled for December 24, to January 2022. The committee stated that due to political reasons and force majeure factors such as judicial decisions, the commission was unable to publish the final list of presidential candidates.
The legitimacy of libya's government of national unity has been called into question as elections cannot be held as scheduled. Since the beginning of 2022, Aguila Saleh Isa, president of the Libyan National Congress, has repeatedly said that the national unity government has "expired" and needs to be reconstituted. On 10 February, the National Assembly unanimously voted to elect Fassi Bashaga as the new Prime Minister, succeeding the current Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity, Debeba. In response, Debeba said that the Government of National Unity will continue to govern until the country holds new elections, and the power of the government will only be transferred to the new democratically elected government. On 1 March, the Libyan National Assembly voted by a majority of 92 votes to vote in confidence in the new government to succeed the government of national unity led by incumbent Prime Minister Debeba. At this point, Libya once again appeared in a "two-government" situation, once again into a political stalemate.
On the evening of 26 August, armed groups supporting the Transitional Government and the new Government erupted in fierce armed clashes in various parts of the capital, Tripoli. The clashes killed 32 people, injured 159 others, and damaged many homes and medical institutions. This is the most intense conflict in Libya since the signing of a "ceasefire" agreement between the two sides of the Conflict in Libya in October 2020.
On September 4, Libya's High National Election Commission issued a statement saying that the political and security environment after the suspension of the elections in Libya would not help to lift the force majeure factors that led to the suspension of the elections. At present, the differences of opinion among the political parties in Libya have widened further, and the Commission is unable to resume the electoral process in the short term.
"The Western intervention in Libya and the U.S.-led action in 2011 were a complete conspiracy. Regime change in Libya was achieved by force, not by the will of the people. We are caught in an unpredictable civil war. Libyan political analyst Faraj Dalí said. He noted that the United States has always tried to impose its own democratic system on other countries, "which is a huge mistake."
Source: Reference News Network