Mouawad: Lax International Approach on Syria Threatens Elimination of Entire Mideast Countries

Head of the Independence Movement Michel Mouawad slammed on Wednesday the international community's lax approach in tackling the situation in Syria, saying that it is linked to Iran's expansionist plans in the region.

He said in a statement: “The lax approach is threatening to eliminate entire Middle Eastern countries, starting with Syria and Lebanon.”

“The approach is threatening to eliminate cultural and religious diversity in the region in favor of an extremist sectarian one,” he noted.

He added that the complexity of the conflicts on the ground in Syria are making it difficult for the international community, especially western nations, to take a decision on the crisis.

He noted that the crisis takes on the form of a popular revolt against a dictatorship, a regional dispute that involves Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Israel, and a sectarian one between Shiites and Alawites on the one hand and Sunnis on the other.

The international community's indifference to the massacres committed by the Syrian regime “paved the way for the armed revolt and later its sectarian approach through the involvement of Salafist jihadists,” Mouawad continued.

“The complexity of the crisis does not justify the lax international approach,” he stressed.

“Ending the arms embargo against rebels, who respect democracy and human rights and who represent the majority of the opposition, is the first step in the right direction towards ending the crisis in Syria,” he stated.

“On the political level, the demand that the Syrian opposition be united should be eliminated,” he said.

“Is it possible for people who are beginning to discover their freedom to form a united opposition at a time when they are struggling for survival?” he asked.

“A political solution to the crisis does exist and it paves the way for the formation of a democratic state that respects individual rights, protects minorities, and stands against the possibility of the formation of a dictatorial religious state instead of the current military and sectarian regime,” Mouawad emphasized.

“Such a system does exist and it is embodied by the system in Lebanon,” he noted.

“Despite its flaws and weakness, the Lebanese system has demonstrated that it can be an example of moderation and coexistence,” stressed the head of the Independence Movement.

“This is the same system that the Syrian regime and Iran have sought to destroy,” which is maybe why they are preventing its establishment in Syria, he opined.

“International intervention in Syria has its prices, but they will inevitably be better than the prices of the lax approach,” he said.

“Indifference does not produce a status quo and the alleged complexities of the crisis does not justify the shying away from one's responsibilities,” he declared.

“A lax approach is a choice. A choice to create chaos and suffer its consequences at Europe's doorstep and a choice to give extremism, which will inevitably expand, the upper-hand,” Mouawad said.