Any good analysis in the international press these days, comes to the conclusion that the political crisis in the Eastern Mediterranean region is here to stay for a number of years to come: Lebanon, after an absence of a government for almost 10 months, witnessed unexpected bomb blasts in the streets of the capital and elsewhere, and even after the recently formed fragile, new setup.

Syria is in the middle of civil war where hundreds are killed every day by the regime forces that do not hesitate to use internationally prohibited weapons against civilians. Iraq is not far from collapse as a unified nation, with news of explosions flashed daily on our TV screens, amid political and ethnic quarrels among its varied factions. Even Iran has its own external and internal problems, mainly differences between the hawks and doves that are reflected in its press.

The region attracts adventurers from all over the world not just from the Middle East. We hear of British, French, Germans, Asians and even persons from South America joining the rebel outfits fighting in Syria. Furthermore, the lines of battle are being overwhelmed by radical sectarian lines. This should ring a bell and hark back to the bloody fights between the Protestants and Catholics, in the dark ages of Europe.

It’s loud and clear that the war will be long and the fatalities of the innocent civilians could be in hundreds of thousands. Both sectarianism and longtime fighting means that no one is immune to the outcome, the disease could easily spread. It does show in the unrest in Bahrain, in the east of Saudi Arabia, Libya and Yemen. In fact, most countries in the region are subject to tensions spilling over and their probable disintegration.

We in the Gulf are on top of the list. That is why the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries concluded a security treaty to safeguard the regional security from the expected spill over. This treaty was concluded by the GCC member states in Riyadh on November 13, 2013 and endorsed at the GCC summit in Manama, on December 28 last year. It consists of 20 articles, replacing the existing ones’ which were signed in 1994 with 45 articles — not endorsed by the government of Kuwait at the time.

All the GCC member states had welcomed this new treaty but the political body of Kuwait is divided on it. The government has submitted it to the Parliament to be ratified as the law requires, but it soon led to the start of a political battle. A number of organised political groups are opposing this treaty under the claim that it conflicts with the Kuwaiti constitution, which safeguards the freedom of citizens.

To the contrary this proposed treaty has been modified to satisfy Kuwait’s demands. A good part of the opposition are in fact using this occasion to rally the public against government policies. This has widened the debate over this treaty to the extent that some are demanding the resignation of the government, and the dissolution of parliament. Not all political groups are opposing the treaty in its new form — some of them, though small in numbers and hesitant came out to support it, but their voices are far and few between.

Some analysts think that Kuwait has to sign this treaty because it needs the treaty more than the rest of the GCC. The vulnerability of Kuwait has been witnessed before, during the Iraqi invasion in 1990. At the end, Kuwait chose to postpone the debate in parliament on the proposed security treaty, to take the wind out of the opposition, for a later time. But this is not a solution to the issue, instead it is tantamount to keeping it in political freeze.

The wars and instability around the region is what has been termed internationally as ‘terrorism’ which comes in different forms, but it has common features. It could start as an idea in one country, get financed in another, put in motion in a third, and the committing of the terrifying deed could come about in the fourth. That is how the terrorists work. Although the world is now cooperating to quell such horrible acts, it has proven to be difficult without the cooperation of all countries concerned.

It is a wellknown fact that certain citizens from Gulf countries are fighting on one or more fronts, rightly or wrongly. They are financed, trained and indoctrinated in certain ways in terrorist dogma. If they survive the fighting, they will return to their respective countries. That is why Saudi Arabia has announced lately harsh measures to be taken against such citizens who travel to fight in foreign countries. The Gulf region has suffered from the return of those who fought in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

It is important for the GCC countries to realise that the bloody conflicts east of the Mediterranean will continue for a number of years to come, and words are not enough for people to keep their distance. A lot more needs to be done in the field of education on the one hand, and in the media on the other, in cooperation with all GCC countries, as all of them are in the same boat.

Mohammad Alrumaihi is a professor of Political Sociology at Kuwait University.