West Asian Conflicts and Indian Responses

In recent months significant developments have unfolded in the West Asian region. The Iran-Iraq War has again flared up dangerously. The Iranian allegations of Iraq using chemical weapons continues. Apart from the usual land, aerial and tanker warfare, the current phase of the Iraq-Iran war has witnessed the use of sophisticated missiles such as the Soviet-made Scud-B, surface-to-surface missile (SSM) by the Iranians. Reports strongly suggest that the Libyan's have transferred the Soviet-supplied Scud-B missiles to Iran. Indeed, the Arab world continues to be divided on Iran-Iraq. While Libya and Syria strongly support Iran in the war effort, Iraq has the support of the majority of the Arab states. The aggressive Israel has been humbled in Lebanon by the Shia resistance and already it has partially withdrawn from there. The Israeli claim of liquidation of the PLO in June 1982, through its so-called “operation Peace for Galilee” was really a myth as that resulted only in dividing the PLO into moderate and radical groups. While the moderates were in the upswing under the leadership of Yasser Arafat supported by pro-west Arab states, the radicals supported by the Syrians and Libyans did not go into oblivion. In fact, recently the radical groups have staged a come-back. The formation in early March '85 of a Syrian-sponsored anti-PLO, in the shape of a six faction “Palestinian National Salvation Front” (PNSEF), poses the gravest challenge yet to Arafat in all the years of his stewardship as the PLO's anointed leader. Meanwhile, the Syrian dominance of Lebanese politics was recently challenged by the Christian militiamen opposed to what they see as President Gemayel's growing subservience to the Syrians. The Syrians responded quickly by moving their forces into Lebanon to ensure that their gains were not jeopardised. Moreover, the Syrian gains in southern Lebanon are increasing because their supported Shia radical, guerrilla resistance movement has intensified in southern Lebanon causing heavy loss of life to the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) and the decision to withdraw them at the earliest. Indeed, the Shia resistence movement is the first independent and successful Arab guerrilla movement in 70 years.