Left-leaning Knesset member Omer Barlev tells NATO that Iranian terrorism, and not the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is the cause of instability in the Middle East.
The primary cause of the current instability and strife in in the Middle East is Iran’s terror proxies operating throughout the region, an Israeli lawmaker told NATO members.
Speaking at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (Joint Seminar of the Mediterranean and Middle East Special Group and the Sub-Committee on Transatlantic Defense and Security Cooperation) in Rome on Sunday, Zionist Union Knesset member Omer Barlev said the current dangerous developments in the Middle East are unrelated to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as some of those who attended the seminar asserted.
Rather, he said, the developments are mainly the result of two internal issues within the Islamic world: The first is the confrontation between moderate Sunni countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan with the extreme Islamic State (ISIS) terror group which has declared war against them; The second is the religious internal Muslim conflict between Shiites and Sunnis in the region.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not connected to the threat on the Wesr and the democratic world which is emanating from the Middle East, said Barlev, who served as the Knesset’s representative at the NATO seminar.
Barlev was responding to an assertion by some delegates to the seminar that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict serves as a “generator” for the current developments in the Middle East. MK Barlev rejected the notion as “either a cynical comment or a misunderstanding.”
Barlev is a former IDF general and a commander of the elite Sayeret Matkal commando unit.
The main reason for the current instability in the Middle East is “the Iranian proxies in the Middle East, whether it’s within Yemen or in Lebanon with Hezbollah,” Barlev told the delegates.
The NATO Parliamentary Assembly is an inter-parliamentary organization which brings together legislators from NATO member countries to consider security-related issues of common interest and concern.
By: United with Israel Staff
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