ON THE BRINK
| Date :25-Jun-2019 |
THE United States President Mr. Donald Trump is yet again on the trigger, hounding the Islamic Republic of Iran with threats of “cocked and loaded” US Military ready for a swoop. On the other hand, a belligerent Iran has got on with the act of securing itself in the process downing a US drone. As the world squirms at the prospect of a full-fledged armed conflict between the bitter adversaries, backchannel talks have begun with close allies in the Middle East and Gulf countries.
These developments hold an eerie similarity with what had happened last year when America was “locked and loaded” against North Korea. However, this time tension seems to have assumed alarming proportions with Tehran’s defiant posture. Opening up all channels of diplomacy is the key component while wriggling out of such tricky situations. For all his loaded threats, even Mr. Trump realises the follies of full-fledged military combat between two nations. If things are not checked right now with smart diplomacy by all the stakeholders, including India, then there will be uncontrollable consequences of the war. Warmongering is the obvious outcome of such situations.
Iran is amply displaying it with direct action against the US drone and lawmakers resorting to old chants of “Death to America”. However, such rhetorics hold limited substance and are totally detached from the actual cost of war. No country, in the present times, has hastily pressed the panic button. It remains the extreme option, even for a superpower like America. The Iran-US tension also needs a quick solution through mediation by European as well as Asian nations.
History has great examples of leaders opting for a honourable exit route through suave diplomacy when their forces were on the brink of a war. The ‘Cuban Missile Crisis’ of 1962 is chronicled in foreign policy journals as the benchmark of intelligent and persistent exercise in brinkmanship diplomacy. The then US President John F Kennedy and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev arrived at a consensus after a 13-day crisis when USSR had deployed missiles in Cuba against the US. It had the world on the brink but better sense prevailed through talks. Backdoor maneuvering is still the best option for the world to de-escalate the present tension.