Trump Moving Forward on Phares’ Arab NATO Concept

by Rebecca Bynum

We are heartened that President Trump is moving forward on several of his former foreign policy advisor Walid Phares’ ideas concerning the Middle East. The creation of safe zones in Syria is one such plan, another is the formation of an Arab NATO – a mutual defense pact against violent jihad. It is clearly in the moderate Arabs’ interest to band together in a formal security arrangement in cooperation with the United States and Europe in order to defeat ISIS and contain their radical elements.

For too long, the Arab states have been content to allow radicalism to fester as long as it was directed outward, against the West, even though Osama bin Laden, while in exile, openly advocated the overthrow of the Saudi monarchy and the Muslim Brotherhood briefly seized power in Egypt.

In view of the tragic war in Syria and the simmering, unresolved conflict in Libya, it is clear that the moderates must unite in order to restore stability to the region and to smother the flames of jihad wherever they arise.