Caritas President calls for aid, not weapons to the Syrian people

Caritas President calls for aid,
not weapons to the Syrian people

For Caritas Lebanon president Fr Simon Faddoul, the
situation in refugee camps is increasingly dreadful. As the Arab League is set
to arm Syrian rebels against the Assad regime, Lebanon, Algeria and Iraq fear
the Syria conflict will spread to the region. The Syrian National Coalition
leader calls for US and NATO armed intervention.

تكبير الصورةتصغير الصورة معاينة الأبعاد الأصلية.


Damascus (AsiaNews): "The
international community should send aid for Syrians fleeing the war rather than
weapons," Caritas Lebanon president Fr Simon Faddoul told AsiaNews. However,
rather than make further comments about the Arab League's decision to arm the
rebels in the Free Syrian Army, he prefers to talk about the tragic situation in
refugee camps on the border between the two countries.
"The plight of refugees is terrible," he
explained, "and is getting worse." The situation is such that "We lost count of
the number of people who have crossed the border." But according to UN figures,
the figure now stands at more than a million.
For Fr Faddoul, there is an urgent need for aid
and a real commitment by all the countries interested in the welfare of the
population, to ensure that those who are fleeing from war do not suffer from
hunger and cold in refugee camps.
In Doha (Qatar), the Arab League yesterday voted
in favour of allowing member states to send weapons to Syrian rebels. Its
resolution asserted the "right of every state to offer all forms of
self-defence, including military, to support the resistance of the Syrian people
and the Free Syrian Army".
Of the League's 22 members only Algeria, Iraq and
Lebanon have expressed reservations, stressing that the move could see the
conflict spread to the region. However, in a press conference after the summit,
Arab League Secretary Nabil el-Arab said that military support did not exclude a
political solution.
At the meeting itself, for the first time since
warfare broke out, the opposition held Syria's seat after it was left vacant in
November 2011. The rebel flag also replaced that of Assad's regime.
During the summit, Syrian National Coalition
leader Motaz Ahmad el-Khatib called on the United States to establish a no-fly
zone to protect civilians. He also called for deployment of Patriot missiles on
rebel bases located along the border between Turkey and Syria.
Khatib, who recently submitted his resignation in
protest against the inaction of the international community, urged League
members to respect human rights in their own countries. He also called on the
international committee to freeze the US$ 2 billion the Assad regime is said to
have in foreign bank accounts.
For now, Washington is hesitating about the use of
missiles or a NATO intervention in Syria. However, according to Melkulangara
Bhadrakumar, a former Indian diplomat expert on the Middle East and Islam, US
President Obama's strategy is changingHis recent trip to Israel and Palestine and
especially the rapprochement between Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan and his
Israeli counterpart Netanyahu are a significant step to win support in the
region and play a leading role in the Syrian crisis.
Although the possibility of a NATO intervention
has so far been ruled out, Patriot missiles already in place on the
Turkish-Syrian border for Ankara to use against Syrian air attacks could become
an offensive weapon and raech targets as far as Aleppo.
The idea of NATO intervention, even if only
limited to rockets, could push the Assad regime to
surrender.