Many countries are on the brink of destruction: Aboul Gheit

Cairo – 7 October 2017: Secretary General of the League of Arab States Ahmed Aboul Gheit asserted that many countries are on the brink of destruction: Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen.

Moreover, there are some countries that are trying to drive a wedge between countries of the Anti-Terrorism Quartet (ATQ), he added.

Aboul Gheit said in an interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais that the strategic defeat imposed on the Arabs is continuing from the 1967 War.

He added that there are a lot of efforts with few results. “For a long period, we were disappointed with the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement. The nations of Iraq, Syria and Lebanon were united, but now they are threatened,” he said.

There is a disaster in the world now that is caused by the countless conflicts, like sectarian conflicts between Sunnis and Shiites and interference of countries with great power, Aboul Gheit added.

He also insisted on the permanence of the Arabs’ saying: “The resistance of the monarchies is better than the republic. Revolutions such as the Arab Spring have opened the way for violence. I call it autumn; it is even closer to winter. There has been no prosperity for democracy nor for human rights.”

He stressed that the mistake that had happened during the Arab Spring is that the region was not ready. The Islamists’ desire to rule was also spreading non-executable ideas among people, and there was great anger at nepotism and an unequal division of wealth, he added.

In response to a question about the role of Al Jazeera and the causes of the crisis between the Arab quartet and Qataris, Aboul Gheit said, “I think the destruction, torment and millions who were killed or pushed out of their homes means the region was not ready for these ideas — ideas that were published by Al Jazeera.”.

The road map that Aboul Gheit sees to pacify the region pivots on the idea of defeating the Islamic State (IS) group and pursuing a political solution in Syria and Iraq.

In response if Bashar Al-Assad is part of the political solution in Syria, Aboul Gheit said, “this should be decided by the Syrians,” adding that “not long ago, it was not clear enough for the Arabs that Al-Assad should not be in power. Things have changed since the Russian interference.”