KUALA LUMPUR, June 20: Former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad opened a peace forum in the Malaysian capital on Tuesday with an assertion that the world may be in the throes of a new global conflict.

“Many of us here believe that the fourth world war is already here,” he said at the start of a conference, which is the latest in a series organised by the veteran politician, who stood down as leader in 2003.

“The use of nuclear weapons may very well divide the world into two — a fourth world war is going on now,” he said, referring to the two great wars and the Cold War which ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

“We need to work in the long-term for war to be made a crime. People who wage war should be treated as criminals,” he told reporters.

The three-day conference brings together two former UN assistant secretary-generals — Denis Halliday and Hans von Sponeck — as well as other prominent commentators on global affairs, who all warned against a US attack on Iran.

“This is a real moment of danger. Confrontation is in the making,” said von Sponeck, adding that the prospect of a conflict with Iran was an ‘insane idea’ that would be a ‘a massive failure with a lot of death and destruction’.—AFP