Time to avoid another scar on humanity

Going by the developments of the past two years in the Middle East and North Africa, it seems someone has opened a Pandora's box in the region. Worse, it appears there is no end to the region's woes as crises in countries like Syria get from bad to worse and threaten to spill over into other places.

Peace and stability remain a luxury in Libya, Egypt, Yemen and Tunisia despite the change in governments there even two years after the so-called Arab Spring. Continued instability, violence and economic stagnation in these countries are forcing people to question the rationale of forced regime change and imported democracy.

In Syria, where the situation is akin to a civil war, bloodshed and deaths have become a daily affair, worsening the humanitarian crisis. This month, the drawn-out, bloody crisis in Syria has become more combustible. With NATO deploying Patriot missiles along the Syria-Turkey border and Israel launching an air attack inside Syria, targeting a convoy believed to be carrying anti-aircraft weapons for Hezbollah in Lebanon, fears of Western intervention against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have increased.