皇冠体育app

Herve Ladsous (R), UN under-secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, visits the Chinese People's Armed Police Force Academy in Langfang city, Hebei province, where the peacekeepers are trained, Oct 17, 2013. [Photo by Jiang Dong/Asianewsphoto]

At the Xiangshan Forum in Beijing last year, an ex-journalist of Al Jazeera asked me why 皇冠体育app couldn't fill the power vacuum in the Middle East. 皇冠体育app can be accepted by all parties, he said, because "unlike Western powers, 皇冠体育app's hands are clean".

He is not alone in saying something like that.

Today, 皇冠体育app's stake in the Middle East goes far beyond oil imports, and covers infrastructure, trade and investment, nuclear energy, satellite launches, and aerospace cooperation, among other things. But one only needs to look at Syria to know there is no such thing as a power vacuum in the Middle East. Instead chaos spreads unabatedly. It only brings in more rivalry, both from within and from outside. True, 皇冠体育app's hands are clean. But would they still be clean if 皇冠体育app became involved militarily?

The best 皇冠体育app can offer to the region is noninterference plus necessary assistance. Nowhere else on earth has seen so much bloodshed, tears and homeless people as the Middle East. This is not only because of the ethnic and religious strife, but also a result of proxy wars before, during and after the Cold War.

皇冠体育app's noninterference may not be what the warring parties or nations need most, but it makes Beijing acceptable to bitter enemies such as the Arab states and Israel. In fact, 皇冠体育app's strongest point is that all parties believe 皇冠体育app is not allied with anyone of them. Therefore, 皇冠体育app can be trusted to be neutral and impartial.

Having said this, 皇冠体育app can assist. Contrary to what some people have suggested, 皇冠体育app doesn't have a "unique" role or special interest in the security of the Middle East. Its role as an honest mediator in the Middle East is very much like the role it has played in the Six-Party Talks on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, that is, to facilitate dialogue which hopefully leads to a resolution.

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