DC Edit | Iran-Pak row widens conflict

It appears an open season has been declared for extraterritorial air, missile, and drone strikes. If Vladimir Putin kicked off the most brutal round of warfare this decade with his invasion of Ukraine on February 23, 2022, the Middle East becoming a cauldron of incendiary explosive action across countries, and enveloping a crucial global maritime trade route, also owes much to an increasingly cavalier disdain for international law and sovereignty of nations.

The latest to join this deadly game that leaves humanity in real fear of a global conflagration akin to a world war are Iran and Pakistan after the US and the UK led a consortium of nations in striking Yemen, Iraq, and Syria. The free play of non-state actors in Sunni and Shia militias, egged on by one side or the other, has exacerbated the situation so much that an international war like situation is developing.

Not content with seeing its proxy militias in Hezbollah and Houthi rebels letting off steam and missiles in retaliation for Israel’s relentless pounding of the Gaza Strip to the extent that 70 per cent of Gaza City is now an uninhabitable rubble, Iran joined the direct action by bombing parts of Syria, Iraq, and Pakistan. And Pakistan retaliated by striking Sistan and Baluchestan province in Iran from the air, killing at least nine people and sending the situation sliding even more towards a major regional conflict.

The genesis of the West Asia-Middle East cauldron can be traced to the horrific October 7 attack by Hamas against Israel. A disproportionate Israeli response has lasted more than 100 days and that has invited every group with access to airborne munitions, SAM missiles and long-distance drones from a readymade market supplied by the military-industrial complexes to spread discord and mayhem.

There seems to be only one route to even begin to negotiate the way to peace in the whole region from Ukraine to Pakistan and that is to bring about a ceasefire first in Ukraine and Gaza and use those as springboards to aiming for a general peace that existed till about two years ago. Unless a couple of warmongers relent, the world may slip into a crisis that could potentially destroy humanity as we have known it till the third decade of the 21st century.