Press Release: Tracy Chamoun returns from London having attended official meetings and an international conference on the Middle East. The president of the Liberal Democrats Party, Tracy Chamoun, concluded her visit to London, during which she met with officials from the British government and participated in a conference at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London organized by the Gingko Foundation. During her official meetings, Chamoun stressed the need to find an immediate solution to the vacuum in the Presidency of the Republic of Lebanon and to work on a fair electoral law based on proportional representation. The conference centered around the effects of the Sykes Picot agreement on the Middle East one hundred years later and the impact of the Islamic State in the re-drawing of the map of the Middle East. It numbered academics and researchers from around the world and Chamoun’s intervention came at in a panel presided by former British Foreign Secretary Lord David Owen. In her statements, Chamoun said: Lebanon and most Middle Eastern countries which were originally created by Sykes-Picot have become legitimate nations recognized by the United Nations and have conferred national identities to their people. She clarified this by stating that she is a third generation Lebanese and asked that Lebanon as a nation must continue to be protected from any divisions or occupation. It should not be allowed for rogue states to self-impose themselves and world organizations should not bow to their self-claimed legitimacy. She elaborated: The war being waged by the Islamic State or Dae’sh is not a true expression of Islam. It is a utilitarian fabrication, which has exploited Islam to create divisions with the aim of carving up the geography to achieve regional hegemony based on local power struggles between the Wahabi - Salafi axis and the Islamic Brotherhood axis, and to secure vital economic channels for oil and gas. She added: If it continues, we will unfortunately see that the real nature of this war will end up being among Sunnis themselves for the legitimacy of Islamic Theocracy between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the self proclaimed Caliphate. On the matter of the US led coalition to fight the Islamic State or Da’esh, she stated that due to the complex Islamic interests and the presence of different proxy groups battling on the ground, the best policy for the West to adopt is one of restraint and non -intervention regardless of the attempts being made by the Islamic State to draw them into battle through the use and display of gruesome terrorist tactics. The present interventions only strengthen the Islamic State through the fueling of anti-Western sentiment. Any military campaign, which is hesitant and reluctant such as the one conducted by the coalition in Syria, where the line between friendship and enmity is not clear and which prevents the West from acting decisively and conclusively, will only lead to failure and will exacerbate an already huge humanitarian disaster. She concluded: “I am astounded when I see the speed with which the West was able to impose economic sanctions on Russia, and by contrast the inability for decades to stem the flow of money from numerous groups in some Arab countries that are considered allies, and who have funded jihad allowing for the rise of the Islamic State and their continued success in recruitment.” “The biggest error being exercised by the West is the one of double standards which in the past has allowed them to turn a blind eye to what is happening because of the lure of the petro-dollar. She hoped that the West would begin to look at what is really occurring with fresh eyes.”
Posted on: Tue, 09 Dec 2014 10:16:46 +0000
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