Middle East : a hotbed of conflicts

Transcription

1 Theme 2 History Middle East : a hotbed of conflicts Introduction : Locate the area : Middle East is an Anglo Saxon term. It designs the area from Egypt to Afghanistan and from Turkey to the Arabic peninsula = From the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean. (Frenches say the Near East : the Mediterranean coast where they had Christian trading posts). G.W. Bush enlarged this definition From Mauritania to Afghanistan, because this is the space where the islamist terrorism is spread. Context : Since the WWI, this area has been a strategic challenge for foreign powers and many conflicts lasted. Key-question for this chapter: - Why is it an area of major conflicts for a long time and at every scales? - What was the role of the powers like UK and the USA in those conflicts? I. An area with major issues Question : Why is the Middle East a conflict area? Sources = maps 1. Strategic issues Slides Since the Middle age, it is a place for contacts, trade, exchanges of culture, and fights (crusades) It is the place where the 3 monotheist religions appeared. The Middle East was unified by the Turkish during the 16 th century= the rule of the Ottoman Empire lasted 5 centuries. But the power of the Ottoman Empire decreased from the 19 th century, against the Arabian claims and the lusts of the European powers. Around this area are located some of the main routes of the world trade : - Some strategic straits : Hormuz, Gulf of Aden and the Bosphorus strait (from Caspian to the red Sea) - The Suez canal, inaugurated in 1869: represents 7.5 % of the shipping trade (mainly oil from the south to the north, and manufactured goods from the north to the south.) Those routes were coveted : - by the Russians (access to the warm seas), - By the British : to secure the route to their Empire and during the second industrial revolution, they were the first interested in the oil resources. 2. A mosaic of population Slides A crossroad of three main civilizations : Iranian, Arabian (majority) and Turkish populations. Minority people : Armenians, Kurdish, Jews. Don t forget that Arabian are not unified or united 1

2 The complexity of the religious communities In majority (95 %), people are Muslims, but are divided in two groups : Sunnis (majority) and Shiites or the Shia (minority). Explain were Two groups are a minority : The Christian scattered in many countries, but mainly in Egypt, Syria and Lebanon. The Jews in Israel since the end of the 19 th century. Jerusalem is a threefold holly city and every monotheist religion claims sovereignty on the city. We can specify that all the Arabian are not Muslim, and all the Israeli are not Jews During a long time, people and religions lived generally in peace was a hard break! 3. The resources issue : Slides 6 7 For oil Hydrocarbons are the major resources in the area. The countries of Middle east are the main producers of oil and gas in the world: 1/3 of the world production for oil and thenth for natural gas, 55 % of the oil reserves and 40 % of the gas reserves. Located mainly: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and Kuwait (and of course united Arab Emirates!) The trade is made by pipelines and by shipping trough the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. The resources were first controlled by the British oil companies: the Anglo-Persian company which became British petroleum After the WII, the US obtained the exploitation rights and all the resources were controlled by the Majors : Standard Oil, Texaco, Mobil, But, during the 50 s and the 60 s, the countries tried to control their national resources : for example, in 1953, the Prime Minister Mossadegh in Iran decided to nationalize the oil companies. But he was overthrown by a coup d état organized by the CIA! In 1960, the oil producers created the OPEC : Organization of Petroleum exporting countries Oil is a major issue for all the developed countries, because it is the condition of the development. The US are the huge energy importer, followed by Europe and China! Oil can be a major means of pressure for the oil producers against the importers. For example, the price of the crude oil increased dramatically (fourfold) during the two oil crisis in 1973 and For water Slide 8 Water is a natural, vital but rare resource that is unevenly distributed in the Middle East : Middle East contains 5 % of the world s population, but only 1% of the world s freshwater resources. - Iraq and Turkey have two major rivers (Tiger and Euphrates) which provide the essential resources for domestic consumption, agriculture and energy. - Israel, Syria and Jordan share the Jordan river. - Others like Saudi Arabia have almost no resource water! They must bring water from underground aquifers. They built desalination factories (but very expensive). Consequently, war for water could happen!!! And the problem is getting worse with the demographic pressure and the necessity of an agricultural development. Conclusion : a region of conflicts for many reasons. 2

3 II. The role of UK and the US in the conflicts of Middle East II.1. The conflict between Israel and Arabs The Balfour Declaration (1917) Context : during the WWI, Palestine was ruled by the ottoman Empire. In the Middle East, the Englishs urged the Arabs to rise up against the Turkish domination. Palestine was populated by Arabs, in majority Muslims. Since many centuries, the Jewish have been persecuted, particularly in Poland, Russia. The suffered from violence like pogroms. In France, the Dreyfus Affair had divided the Frenches and everywhere, antisemitsm grew up. So, from this late XIX th century, thousands of Jewish made the Alya : they emigrated to Palestine, the promised earth. In 1897, an austro-hungarian journalist formed the World Zionist organization to promote a Jewish migration to Palestine and the aim was to found a Jewish state. The letter : The Balfour Declaration is a short letter by Arthur Balfour (Foreign Secretary) to one of the most influential Jewish families in Europe - the Rothschild's. Sir Rothschild s was the president of the English Zionist federation. The letter made public the British government's support to the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The impact of the letter : But the situation in the Middle East changed with the post-war treaties : Versailles in 1919 and Sèvres in The Ottoman empire disappeared (replaced by a smallest Turkey). The treaty of Sèvres did nt create a Jewish state but established the mandates system : UK ruled the administration in Palestine. A new Alya began : more than Jewish emigrated, especially with the beginning of the Nazi Germany. In 1936, an anti-zionist Arabian revolt began. And the Jewish immigration stopped. The UN partition plan of Palestine in 1947 Context : - During the WWII, the Jewish were the victims of the worst crime ever seen in the history : the final solution, wich was the prosecution and the genocide of all the Jewish in Europe, that is to say more than 5 M. people assassinated in the extermination camps and by the Einsatzgruppen on the Russian front. This genocide is called Shoah by the Jewish = disaster More than ever a Jewish homeland was hoped. - After the WWII, the UN replaced the League of Nations and the mandate system was abolished. UK placed the situation of Palestine in the hands of the UN. Explain the Partition : - A UN Commission recommended partitioning what was left of the original Mandate into two new states, one Jewish and one Arab. Jerusalem and its surrounding villages were to be temporarily classified as an international zone belonging to neither polity. In Jerusalem are located the holy places for the 3 monotheist religions. 3

4 - Arab leaders and governments rejected the plan of partition and indicated that they would reject any other plan of partition. They argued that it violated the principles of national self-determination in the UN charter which granted people the right to decide their own destiny - The partition was unacceptable by each side : a partition???? Consequences : - A series of conflicts between Israel and Arabs (Palestinians, Egypt, Syria ) To be remembered and explained To cnclude : we can say that the strange powers have created the situation of conflicts in the Middle east. The peace process : Camp David Agreement (1978) / Oslo Accords ( ) In the first three Arab-Israeli wars, Israel decisively defeated Egypt. As a result of the 1967 (6 days war), Israel occupied Egypt s Sinai Peninsula. Then, on October 6, 1973, Egyptian and Syrian forces launched a joint attack against Israel. It was Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for Jews, and Israeli forces were taken entirely by surprise. It took more than a week for Israel to beat back the impressive Arab advances. In 1978, at the White House in Washington, D.C., Egyptian President Anwar el-sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin sign the Camp David Accords, laying the groundwork for a permanent peace agreement between Egypt and Israel after three decades of hostilities. They were invited by Pdt Carter Signed on September 17, the historic agreements provided for complete Israeli evacuation from the Sinai. The treaty ended the state of war between the two countries and provided for the establishment of full diplomatic and commercial relations. Egypt recognized Israel. Sadat and Begin were jointly awarded the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts. Although Sadat was greatly praised in the West, he was widely condemned in the Arab world. In 1979, Egypt was expelled from the Arab League, and internal opposition to his policies led to domestic crises. On October 6, 1981, Sadat was assassinated by Muslim extremists in Cairo while viewing a military parade commemorating the Yom Kippur War. Despite Sadat s death, the peace process continued under Egypt s new president, Hosni Mubarak. The Oslo accords is a series of agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation organization (PLO), signed in 1993 in the presence of the Prime minister Rabin, the chairman Arafat and Bill Clinton. It started the Oslo process until Contains : - A mutual recognition of Israel and PLO - Israeli must evacuate the strip of Gaza and allow a Palestinian authority. The same process will exist in West Bank with the election of a Palestinian parliament. Israeli must manage roads for the Palestinians between Gaza and West bank. 4

5 The Nobel Peace Prize 1994 was awarded jointly to Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin "for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East". But the process failed, collapsed!!! - it didn t deal with the question of Jerusalem and the Palestinian refugees. - And Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish fanatic in Israeli didn t respect their commitments: they left Gaza, but not West bank. On the contrary, they resettled new colonies II.4. Two wars in the Gulf What happened in Middle East since the end of the Cold War? When the USSR disappeared, the USA won the Cold war and became a superpower in a unilateral word, the world s gendarmes. The second Gulf war brings the new role of the USA in the world ( ) Abstract of the crisis: On August 2nde, Iraq invaded Kuwait. Explain the reasons: they needed new resources of oil to fill their financial gap after the war Iraq/Iran. They wanted to influence the price on oil in the OPEC The USA ruled by G. BUSH wanted to create a new world order : it means a world with the values of America, the values of the Manifest destiny (freedom, justice and liberalism). A world ruled by the protectors of those values = the USA. Consequences: The United Nations Security Council decided the war against Iraq with a coalition of 34 countries led by the USA. It was called Operation Desert Storm and the war lasted two months. The war was marked by the introduction of live news broadcasts from the front lines of the battle, principally by the U.S. network CNN. The war has also earned the nickname Video Game War after the daily broadcast of images from cameras on board U.S. bombers during Operation Desert Storm. It seemed to be a technological warfare. Many oil wells on fire Many casualties It shows that now the international relationships have rules, under the UNO and NATO organizations, under supremacy of the USA. 5

6 The second Gulf war brings the new role of the USA in the world ( ) Abstract of the crisis: On 9/ , the USA were attacked by the terrorist organization Al Qaeda, a group of Islamic fundamentalist Muslims. Three planes crashed on the WTC in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. A last plane should have crashed on the White House, but it failed thanks to the passengers who realized the drama. Development: Immediately, G. Bush decided to engage a War against terrorism. He designed some Rogue states which never respect freedom and protect Islamic terrorism. The fight began in Afghanistan against the Taliban regime, by a coalition with the USA in October The Taliban were supposed to train and host the terrorists. In January 2002, G. Bush defined an Axis of evil composed of Iraq, Iran and North Korea. Those states are accused of helping terrorism and seeking weapons of mass destruction. In March 2003, the USA attacked Iraq. Saddam Hussein was captured in December and condemned to the death penalty. And the state felt in a civil war. Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan in 2011 (Obama administration). 6