Read this in The Manila Times digital edition.
GIVEN the level of violence and the excessive crimes we have seen in the Israel-Hamas war, it seems unlikely the call of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Riyadh last week for a cessation of hostilities and a shift to the peace process would have a serious effect on the warring parties.
The Asean and the GCC have no standing record as peace-makers; they have no known influence on the warring parties. Nothing less than the direct intervention of the world powers is expected to play a decisive role here, but none of them have made any serious effort to reconstruct the peace. It is to the credit of the 17 nations in the two regional associations that, in their first ministerial meeting, they decided to take that one bold step, something nobody else had dared to make.
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