'Greater West Asia' leans heavily on India

[bemildred]

Some insights on the Indian point of view about the recent hostilities.

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Professor Fred Halliday coined the phrase and pointed out: "It is not possible to understand what is happening today, let alone what will happen, between Lebanon and Israel, or in Iraq or Afghanistan ... without seeing these events in the broader regional and, to a considerable degree, global context ... The 'linkage' of the Persian Gulf to the Arab-Israeli conflict ... of long-remote Afghanistan to the politics of Iran and the Arab states, and of Pakistan to the Middle East as a whole has, in recent years, become a reality."

This was strikingly brought home to New Delhi on August 23 when, even as Indian Interior Minister Shivraj Patil was berating Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence in parliament for fomenting terrorism, Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf received a strange phone call from President George W Bush expressing America's "deep appreciation for Pakistan's role in fighting terrorism and the support Pakistan has been extending internationally in this regard".

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The coalition government in New Delhi would be loath to admit it, but it must harbor a sense of profound regret that it alienated the regime in Tehran, one of the most catastrophic errors of judgment in foreign policy in years.

India's capacity to influence the events in the strategically vital region to its west is virtually nil - despite claims of being an emerging influential regional player. Now, New Delhi would be greatly embarrassed if despite all the hubris about the coming Armageddon in US-Iran relations, Washington's next move were to begin serious negotiations with Iran.

Asia Times