It’s peace now...or never

A chance for peace has finally emerged in the Middle-East amid a devastating war, which has already left thousands dead and billions worth of infrastructure including invaluable oil and gas assets wrecked. This is no ordinary war - it is happening in the oil-gas hub of the world and if prolonged, could deal a deadly blow to the energy equilibrium with oil and gas still being the major resources fueling the global economy.

So the whole world heaved a sigh of relief when President Donald Trump declared a five-day break on attacks on power plants in Iran. There are enough indications that talks could happen soon on making the temporary peace a permanent one with countries like Pakistan being projected as likely hosts for the talks. Citizens in India and across the world are deeply concerned about the impact of the war on their regular petrol and gas supplies with the shortages already having impacted commercial establishments including eateries.

And anyone would know that the longer the war continues, these resources could become scarcer disrupting normal life. As the world waits eagerly for the talks to begin, one can’t help wondering about the futility of this conflict, which began about 25 days ago with a US-Israel attack on Iran. Iranian supremo Ali Khamenei was killed in a strike in the early days of the war and since then, several Iranian top ranking leaders and officials have been eliminated by US-Israel forces. But then, Iran too has kept the unrelenting attacks going on enemy targets with a latest hit near an Israeli nuclear plant sending panic waves across the world. 

As the bombs kept falling and the missiles rammed into precious assets, it was obvious that there were no clear winners in this war  and all that humanity stood to lose was valuable infra build up painstakingly through the decades. An exit strategy was what the world was looking for when the US-Israel combine launched the war and as it dragged on, it became evident that there was none until Trump’s announcement on Monday about a pause.

In the course of three weeks, nations have been rattled by oil and gas shortages with the global energy sector now in doldrums. Considering the grim scenario, world leader should put their heads together and make sure that the guns stop booming once and for all in the Middle-East. All that has happened till now is chest-thumping and boisterous claims by both sides about decisive strikes on the other and claims of victory when there are actually none. A chance has emerged for peace and one hopes the world does not let go of this opportunity to restore calm in a region which has remained volatile for decades and decades.