Intervention poison not magic potion

The new era of win-win cooperation heralded by President Xi Jinping's visit to three countries in the region presents the crisis-ridden Middle East with a golden opportunity to blaze a new trail out of its chronic turmoil.

While the region has been blessed with a geopolitically important location, unparalleled reserves of oil, and enormous cultural and religious diversity, these blessings have largely failed to translate into real benefits for the people. Instead, they have been more like a curse trapping the region in insecurity and unrest.

As numerous observers both inside and outside the region have eloquently expounded, Western intervention gilded with such lofty slogans as democracy and human rights but adulterated with selfish agendas, has been a prime cause of this.