Abdulrahman al-Rashed

By : Abdulrahman al-Rashed

Any refugee living on only $13 a month, as is the case for many Syrians in Lebanon, would want to immigrate to Europe, former UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband said at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

He added that the solution to the Syrian refugee crisis was not to increase aid to refugees, but to find a permanent solution to help them go back home. The price of this tragedy is greater than money – whole societies and political systems are involved.

The enormous sums spent on security and care of Syrian refugees worldwide could have been saved if the international community had intervened against the Syrian regime in the last five bloody years

Abdulrahman al-Rashed

Unless massacres are stopped, millions of Syrians will keep looking for safe havens. They are escaping murder, hunger and cold. Lives are suspended in inhuman refugee camps. This will not be solved soon because some politicians have concocted a solution satisfying Iran and Russia in Vienna and Geneva.

International inaction

The enormous sums spent on security and care of Syrian refugees worldwide could have been saved if the international community had intervened against the Syrian regime in the last five bloody years.

Every time we criticize the international community’s inaction, some think we are calling for Western troops in Syria, but our sole demand has been to let Syrians buy defensive weapons to counter fighter jets.

The international community has rejected military intervention and the provision of such weapons. With such a weak stand, it is normal that the crisis expanded regionally and even into Europe, which is separated from Syria only by Turkey.

Millions of Syrians are scattered across the region and beyond, and millions more displaced inside their country. The mishandling of the Syrian tragedy led to the rise of ISIS. There is currently no hope for a political solution despite all the talk of diplomacy.

Abdulrahman al-Rashed is the former General Manager of Al Arabiya News Channel. A veteran and internationally acclaimed journalist, he is a former editor-in-chief of the London-based leading Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat, where he still regularly writes a political column. He has also served as the editor of Asharq al-Awsat’s sister publication, al-Majalla. Throughout his career, Rashed has interviewed several world leaders, with his articles garnering worldwide recognition, and he has successfully led Al Arabiya to the highly regarded, thriving and influential position it is in today.

Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in the Column section are their own and do not reflect RiyadhVision’s point-of-view.

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