Arab nations have failed Syria: UAE Minister
While international intervention is taking place in Syria, Arab nations have failed in taking action, said a UAE Minister on Friday morning.
Dr. Anwar Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, took to Twitter hours before the US launched a military strike on the Syrian government in retaliation for the chemical weapons attack that killed at least 70 including women and children in Idlib earlier in the week.
"While we are on the verge of international confrontation in the crushing Syrian war, we realise the marginal role Arabs had in a cruel crisis happening to an Arab country and its people," he said.
"We failed in containing and solving the Syrian crisis within an Arab framework and an Arab mechanism. We witnessed the elevation of international and regional role in a dangerous and disturbing way."
Gargash highlighted the secondary role Arab nations had in Geneva and Astana, noting that their role "is still too weak to face a crisis against humanity and the security and political collapse."
He called upon Arab governments and people to get out their shells and consider the failure Arab regimes made in solving the existing Syrian crisis, stressing collective action.
"We allowed neighboring countries to intervene in our affairs with their sectarian and partisan solutions. We cannot revive our role in Syria or any other country without uniting and solving our own internal struggles."
He added, "In these dark hours, I do not like our style of selfishness and caring for our own problems," calling Arab regional conflicts the "tax we failed to pay."
Gergash noted that a "collective Arab action" and rejecting the concept of interference in Arab affairs will be the only solution that will start a long road of overcoming the Arab crisis.
The Syrian civil war that started in 2011 has left over 250,000 people died.
