ME deflecting from US hegemony, heading for stability: Ex-US diplomat
Screengrab from YouTube video of US former senior diplomat discussing US world view and realistic-based policy during Global Ethics Forum hosted by Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs on Nov. 24, 2014
Conventional partners to the United States in West Asia (Middle East) are starting to shift away from the long-established American hegemony, as countries of the region aim toward creating a stabilized and more secure surrounding, which is causing growing concern in Washington, former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, who also served in the US Department of Defense, Chas Freeman told Sputnik.
His remark comes commenting on the newly Beijing-brokered revived relations between Riyadh and Tehran, Syria, and Hamas, while the Islamic Republic is also in talks with Bahrain to reestablish ties.
During his speech on April 24 at the 9308th meeting of the UNSC, under the agenda of “Maintenance of international peace and security, effective multilateralism through the protection of the principles of the UN Charter,” Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the United States and the European Union are standing in the way of real peace in the Middle East with their "destructive measures" and are sidelining the resolution of the Palestinian issue in favor of pushing for an Arab-Israeli normalization.
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“Americans and Europeans are using the Ukrainian topic, so as to use blackmail threats and bring over countries to their side and distract their attention from the Middle East and other regions of the Global South," Lavrov said then.
'World majority'
"The countries of West Asia are coming to see themselves as members of what [Russian political scientist] Sergei Karaganov has called 'the world majority' and distancing themselves from the United States," Freeman said.
"All this represents a diminution of American influence that is naturally of concern to Washington."
While the Eastern region of the Arab world has long been under the influence of foreign powers, the countries now are adopting further independent foreign policies based on sovereign interests and establishing regional relations distant from US direct interests.
"Its major actors have seized control of their own destiny for the first time since Napoleon's 1798 invasion of Egypt and are seeking their own answers to their region's problems," Freeman added.
Newly emerging leaders of these states are no longer responding well to foreign dictates regarding their [states] outlook on regional issues.
"These leaders have learned the hard way that the use of force and covert action not only solves few problems but is often costly and counterproductive," Freeman said. "The result is a search for peace and stability between the countries of the region without regard to the views of the United States and the former colonial powers."
West Asian nations are deepening ties with rising powers like China, Brazil, India, and Russia and with post-Cold War era international bodies such as BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), indicating a new orientation to adopt a nonaligned position on issues between great powers.