Syriana is a movie that can be traced back to years of complicated international relations between countries. America as we all know is considered to be the Big Brother of all nations. This big brotherly attitude has paved its way into committing a number of offenses to other countries and yet has maintained a positive connection with most of them. A few countries having serious problems with America are the Chinese and some of the Middle Eastern nations.
Iran is well known for its oil reserves and America needs a lot of fuel to keep up its factories and gather its oil reserves for future purposes. So, the movie mainly deals with American ownership of oil reserves in Iran and how Chinese intervention resulted in the turn of events in the course of the plot. Besides superpowers like America and China, immigrants from countries like India and Pakistan land up in the middle eastern countries in search of means to earn a livelihood. These individuals have to go through a lot living in a foreign land and in the fear of getting deported or losing their jobs in the event of minor problems at the most.
Syriana introduces to us an oil company, Connex, a huge US based energy giant. The Emirs of the al-Subaai family owned the oil fields in Iran. Prince Nasir, the foreign minister and the eldest son of the family, gave away the drilling rights to the Chinese instead of America. This had upset the US company and the US government. In turn, Connex decided to merge with Killen (who just owned drilling rights in Kazakhstan). Delegates had been appointed to smoothen the process– Bennett Holiday under the supervision of Dean Whitting, head of a Washington DC based law firm. In the meantime, Bryan Woodman, an American energy analyst based in Geneva, is hired to offer his company’s services to the Emirs in a private party in Spain. Unfortunately, Bryan’s son gets electrocuted in a swimming pool and dies. Therefore, Nasir, as a token of sympathy gave a 75 million dollars of worth contract to him. However, the Emirs have a rift within the family. The younger son of the family, Prince Meshal, wants to side with the American government opposing to his brother’s ideals. Nasir wanted a progressive reform and understood the importance not having oil dependency and looked forward to a strengthened economy from the oil profits. He was side-lined by his repressive father wanted the favour of the Americans for continuing his method of governance. As a result, Subaai declared Meshal as his successor.
Barnes was a CIA agent. He was trying to stop the illegal trafficking of arms to the Middle East. He had successfully killed two arm dealers (originally Iranian Intelligence agents) in Tehran but, one of his delivered anti-aircraft missiles were redirected to an Egyptian. Barnes was later given the task of assassinating Prince Nasir. The Americans did not pay heed to the missing missile which later resulted in a huge issue. Barnes went to the Hezbollah in Lebanon to get a clean chit that he was not against them. He appointed an ex-CIA agent Mussawi to kill Nasir but Mussawi turned against Barnes and kidnapped him instead. There must have been some discrepancy between the Iranians and the Americans that a CIA agent had become an Iranian agent. However, Barnes is saved by the Hezbollah. Interestingly, Barnes’ friend Goff was working with a group of businessmen called The Committee to Liberate Iran, who were to be blamed for Barnes’ abducted. However, Barnes was not dead but he wanted to inform Nasir about his assassination. At the end, Nasir is killed by a drone by the American Intelligence. As a matter of fact, Meshal was also involved in the assassination for he supported the Americans and wanted his brother out of his way.
Waseem on the other hand, is an immigrant from Pakistan, probably from Pakistan occupied Kashmir. He was working in the Iranian oil field. At the occasion of the Chinese intervention, Waseem and many others got laid off because they would recruit other people. Waseem was afraid of getting deported or not having a job at all. He was unable to get a job in this dire situation because he did not know the Arabic language. The teacher at the Madrasa took advantage of this situation. He manipulated him and convinced him, if he would give up his life for a good cause their family would be taken care of. This is how terrorism is born. Waseem was determined and he finally took to arms. The very missile that had gone missing was used by Waseem and his friend to blow up the oil field, the reason for their loss of livelihood.
All this information draws our attention to the blurred relationships between the powers that govern us. In so many ways the poor and the underprivileged are pushed to the brink of their surrender to evil by the forces that are supposed to protect them. Governments have been bought and sold in the name of superiority and control. We live in a world where strength has taken a higher ground.
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