Western Governments are complicit in the horrors being carried out by Islamic State (IS) terrorists, a Syrian priest based in London has claimed.
Revd Nadim Nassar, the only Syrian-born Church of England vicar, said that Nato could order Turkey, one of its own members, to stop letting jihadists enter and leave Syria via its borders. But it has not done so, and effectively shares responsibility for the hold the jihadists have managed to gain there, he said. It is widely accepted that wealthy individuals in Turkey, along with others from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have provided funding and weapons for IS.
Mr Nassar, who is an adviser to the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Religious Freedom and advises the Foreign Office, recalled a special panel meeting of MPs and experts in the House of Commons where concerns had been raised about Britain’s arms sales to Saudi Arabia. He said that during the session a former ambassador lost his temper and told the meeting: “Get over it! We are not going to turn Saudi Arabia into an enemy.”
Mr Nassar said that Middle Eastern Christians were the glue that held the Middle East’s social fabric together, but “At the political level nobody cares if we exist or cease to exist.”
A Nato official told The Tablet that Nato could not order its allies to change their individual foreign policies. He noted that Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg had welcomed the Turkish parliament’s October vote to carry our cross-border military operations against IS, and to allow foreign soldiers to use Turkey’s military bases.
Loading ...
