Comments on issues raised by BBC WHYS

Iran is using the current situation in Lebanon and its confrontation with USA over its nuclear programme to find more fuel for support in the Muslim world which increasingly sees the USA as a malevolent power trying to influence their traditions and shape their identity. Iran as a Muslim country uses this asset to galvanise support based on religion. The Muslim world sees in Iran an alternative to change the course of events in the Middle East.

Economically Iran is banking on its geographic position in a region rich in oil and of which Iran is a great supplier.

But Iran can’t achieve its goal of toppling US influence in the region if it is itself confronted with sanctions, weakening its power and leaving it stand alone among countries in the region that have no choice but to remain US allies.

The past events have shown that many figures gain popular support by standing to the US whether they are head of states as it was the case in Iraq where Saddam was humiliatingly toppled and paraded on the media after his capture. Kaddaffi, Libyan leader had to abandon his nuclear programme to win US friendship. Iran has a history of confrontation with the US since the establishment of Iranian Revolution. There have been rounds of diplomatic confrontations prior to the nuclear programme. Time will tell how the US and Iran will work out their deep differences without either losing face or involving the whole region in complete instability or ruin similar to what we are witnessing in Iraq or Lebanon.

Migration is the consequence of the economic and political problems facing the countries where migrant come from. There are many people who are forced to migrate because of drought, civil war or political repression. There are many displaced people in Africa for whom leaving their country is the only way-out. Africa, in particular, is in the news because the would-be migrants take huge risks, including death, to reach European shores.

These migrants are starting to cause political embarrassment for their countries, the recipient countries and the countries they take as a transit. There is mainly great pressure on European countries, mainly, Spain and Italy which are the nearest to Europe.

The great loss that developing nations face is brain drain. There are many people from the third world with good qualifications. Their countries don’t give them incentives or find them jobs. Developed countries remain their destinations.

But rich countries and the governments of the countries where the migrants come from bear responsibility for this. G8 in particular failed many times to concretise its goal to make poverty a history. The governments of the migrants are inefficient in dealing with economic and social problems. The international community should work together to regulate migration, which is becoming a source of pressure on all sides, breeding just networks for which people smuggling is a lucrative industry.