It is time for Middle East to police its own region

Illustration: Eric Lobbecke Source: News Limited

When next in direct physical contact with President Barack Obama, please slip this speech into his hand. (Please keep it away from the prying eyes of Vice-President Joe Biden, who, accordingly to former defence secretary Robert Gates, has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.)

I humbly draft this speech for President Obama after spending the last few weeks in the US where newspapers have been busily reporting continuing crises in the Middle East, and failed peace talks, because Sunni and Shia, the two main branches of Islam, are once again pitted against one another.

Mr Ambassador, your President, a gifted orator, has said this is a "year of action". With depressingly low approval ratings, what has he got to lose by delivering this speech:

My fellow Americans, I wish to address you tonight, and through you the wider world, on an issue affecting the ongoing peace and security of our world as we walk through the 21st century. I am referring to the ongoing battles in the Middle East, wars seemingly as old as time itself.

This is a speech I give with a sense of profound disappointment. It is a speech that should have been given long ago by an Arab leader with genuine vision for his region. Alas, that has not happened.

It is a speech I must give because, to be frank, America is sick of its role as the international policeman of first resort.

In the name of human decency and liberty, we helped free the Iraqi people from a government that gassed and slaughtered tens of thousands of its own citizens. We helped liberate the Afghani people from the brutal yoke of the Taliban. We then provided support to put an end to the murderous regime in Libya.

Of course, the US has interests in the Middle East, as it does in Asia and throughout the world. We will never shirk from our role as a nation dedicated to liberty and democracy and defending our interests abroad.

However, tonight I must be brutally frank. America - and I am sure our great allies abroad - has grown tired of being called upon to solve these conflicts.

We have our own ongoing problems to solve, without having to commit our finest sons and daughters, not to mention billions of dollars, to solving crises in the Middle East. And I say to Arab leaders, notice too that that we are moving closer to energy self-sufficiency.

As President of the US I am now being asked to put an end to another internecine civil war, this time in Syria. Once again, Sunni and Shia seem intent on slaughtering each other until the last drop of human blood is spilt.

I am asked to support the opponents of President Bashar al-Assad, a man accused of unleashing chemical weapons against his own citizens. Yet these disparate opposition forces are warring among themselves, and they include jihadist rebels such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria a group labelled as too extremist even by groups associated with al-Qa'ida.

The Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Abbott, best described the conflict in Syria as one between bad guys and bad guys. He is right. We need more of this frankness. More than 100,000 people have died during the Syrian civil war. At least 2.5 million Syrians have fled their country and another 9.3 million who remain need humanitarian aid.

While America can do much to help the people of Syria, this is not America's battle. The Geneva II plan would effectively see foreign powers impose a transitional body to reshape the Syrian government. This is an illusory peace. Long term, only the leaders and the people of the Middle East can settle these battles for influence, fought under cover of ancient religious differences, be they in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Lebanon, or elsewhere.

The truth is that this is yet another war between Sunni and Shia, as two central powers battle for influence in the Middle East. Iran's Shia government supports President Assad while the Sunni government of Saudi Arabia supports Sunni opposition forces.

We are witnessing in Syria a proxy war for a deeper, wider battle between Sunni and Shia for the heart and soul of Islam and geo-political power in the Middle East. The fault lines are being felt from Iraq to Pakistan to Lebanon to the Gulf States of Yemen and Kuwait.

After the predictable failure this past week of the naively named peace talks in Switzerland, tonight I call on the leaders of the Arab world, their kings and queens, their presidents and prime ministers, members of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation to take responsibility for Arab problems. This is the first step towards genuine, long-term peace in your region.

The world cannot wait for Sunnis and Shia to continue to slaughter each other in the name of Mohammed and a centuries old conflict about his rightful heir. As Middle East experts have reminded us, this is the world's longest running feud; measured by time, it beats the Catholic-Protestant schism by a factor of three and the Palestinian conflict by a factor of more than 20. Too much blood has been spilt and too much damage has been done to the reputation of Islam over a religious dispute dating back to 632AD that fuelled regional power rivalries ever since.

I say again to the leaders of the Arab world, your time has now come - solving the latest conflict in Syria is your responsibility.

Ultimately the leaders of the Middle East will find their own way to best govern their countries.

Our own experience is that democracy works better than another system yet invented by mankind. Through our democracies, imperfect as they are, we live peacefully with our differences in a tolerant society, resolving debates with words and votes cast at the ballot box, not through the barrel of a gun.

Finally, as part of the resolution of this conflict in the Middle East, I call on Hezbollah and Hamas, and all Arab governments which haven't yet done so, immediately to recognise Israel as the legitimate homeland of the Jewish people. Until that happens there will be no enduring settlement of outstanding issues in the Middle East, whether they are conflicts over land or religion.

While not without fault, Israel has proven its long-term commitment to democracy and liberty and to improving the lives of all Israelis, whether Jewish or not.

In conclusion, I repeat, this is a speech that should have been given by an Arab leader and heeded by fellow Arab leaders. Until it is, peace in the Middle East is ephemeral.

Goodnight and God Bless America.

janeta@bigpond.net.au