COLD WAR II AGAINST RUSSIA WILL BACKFIRE ON US IN WEST ASIA

As America???s relations with Egypt and Saudi Arabia are on the downswing, the West needs to cooperate with Russia for a pragmatic approach to Iran and Syria. Saturday Special analyses Russia???s bid to block West expansion (Main), NATO???s future role (OtherVoice), and the impact of sanctions against Russia on West Asian crises (Perspective)

With the slowly deepening conflict between the West, particularly the US, and Russia over the still evolving situation in Crimea in particular, and the Ukraine in general, concerns have been expressed in world capitals whether this is a prelude to some sort of another Cold War between Russia and the West and what it would mean for global peace and security.

At the moment, even though the US and the EU have imposed some mild sanctions against Russia, principally against some prominent Russian citizens, these have not been sufficient to deter Russia from going back on its commitment to Crimea. In any case the sanctions have been unilaterally imposed by the West without any UN approval and without much adherence from any of the countries not allied with the West, in particular China, India, Brazil and other major economies which have already declared their intention not to follow the West in imposing sanctions. It seems, therefore, very unlikely that Russia would be sufficiently perturbed to desire to return to the Cold War days.

However, while imposing sanctions, the US President also stated that ???the United States is prepared to take additional steps to impos