Syrian step in the right direction

Unpleasant surprises keep unfolding in the Middle East and the moment one conflagration is extinguished another erupts, thanks to the United States and Israel which have the power and the acumen to keep the region simmering and to secure the role of supporting actors for all problems in the region.

This time, the smoke is nuclear from a remote site in the north-east of Syria! A bit dangerous, isn't it? But not real, because much of the story was made up in Tel Aviv and Washington, garnished with a lot of drama, in order to make it look as serious as genuine - and qualify as a sleek plot for a James Bond thriller.

And this stage, it doesn't matter if the star actor was not James Bond, because the world does not mind watching action movies by Israeli and American actors.

A similar show was staged about the Iraqi nuclear capability coming straight from the corridors of the Security Council five years ago. It involved a real-war game with hundreds of thousands of people and real blood flowing in the whole region.

The movie, however is still on and watched by the whole world although it is known to everyone that the core of the story was fake. Sometimes a fake story can be as good and exciting as a real one depending on the actors.

Anyway, there is no harm in repeating the story somewhere else, especially if no one asked those same actors to pay back for the real damages they caused after setting Iraq ablaze.

The bombing

The show started this time in Syria on September 6 last year when two Israeli warplanes bombarded a 'deserted' military location in the north-east of the country at midnight.

Syria revealed the secret attack on September 8, while Israel did not bother to explain neither to Syria nor to the rest of the world about why it took such an offensive action against a UN member state.

It is worth remembering that both Syria and Israel were talking peace at the time of the attack through a third-party mediator, whose airspace was violated by the Israeli attackers on their mission deep inside Syria.

Following the inaugural scene, a play-back of the movie came from the US with a newspaper report quoting an unidentified Israeli official who said that the attack on the Syrian location was made after Israeli leaders were assured that Syria was building a nuclear site with North Korean assistance.

The Israelis in turn conveyed the assurance to President George W. Bush, who in turn sanctioned the attack on Syria.

The rest of the movie has become known with other dramatic details from the US about satellite pictures of the Syrian site taken before and after the attack akin to an advertisement about hair growth drug or plastic surgery.

According to news reports, the only evidence Israelis have given to the US is the seizure by Israeli commandos of nuclear material of North Korean origin during a raid on a secret military site in Syria.

They said the raid was conducted before Israel bombed it in September. Have I not told you earlier that this story was a superb script for a James Bond movie?

Back to reality: Syria has accepted visits by the UN nuclear inspectors to investigate the nuclear allegations and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team visiting Al Kibar in Dier Al Zor. All efforts have to be made to extinguish this fire before it gets any bigger.

Syria must be transparent to prove to the world that the smoke started by the Israeli airstrike on the night of September 6 was baseless and fraudulent like all other conflagrations begun by Israel in the past 60 years.

Syria should cooperate with the IAEA unconditionally and must try its best to prove that Israel is trying to point fingers at others in order to hide its ugly nuclear face.

Israel is the country which has stockpiled more than 200 nuclear warheads in the region illegally just to feel secure while it is trying to start another war with a country that is not capable of producing a nuclear bomb.

By now the international nuclear body, the IAEA, should realise that it cannot protect the world against breaches of the international Non-Proliferation Treaty unless it opens both eyes to check infiltrators.

Keeping one eye closed to what is Israel is doing is not going to help the world and will not help Israel and the US either in the long run.

In my opinion, there is no more need for weapons of mass destruction and arms a terrorist organisation like Al Qaida could unleash are far more harmful than any other weapon yet to be discovered.

The international community must understand that the only security device it can buy is justice and unless all work sincerely towards achieving it; no country on earth will feel secure.

Israel can strike any location in Syria and may strike elsewhere in the world, but it cannot stop people who are living in misery from blowing themselves up in its face.

The US has sensed how a feeling of injustice can motivate people in Iraq and must try sincerely to shut the unjust chapter in the region.

Such a decision requires some wisdom which might not be forthcoming from the current administration in the US, and until somebody intelligent comes to the White House, we might be obliged to watch action movies played by Israeli and American stars.

The UN and international community must act to keep these movies in their two-dimensional format before these actors cause more death and misery.