Washington, DC, September 19, 2017- IDC President Toufic Baaklini commends President of the United States Donald J. Trump’s calls at the U.N. Tuesday for sovereignty, stability, and accountability in the Middle East.
President Trump said that, “rather than using its resources to improve Iranian lives, its oil profits go to fund Hezbollah and other terrorists that kill innocent Muslims,” and that “this wealth, which rightly belongs to Iran’s people, also goes to…undermine peace throughout the entire Middle East.” He added that Iran must “respect the sovereign rights of its neighbors.”
The President recognized Jordan and Lebanon for their role in hosting refugees from the Syrian conflict. The President said earlier this year that he “will absolutely do safe zones in Syria” for displaced Syrians. IDC renews its call for the administration to work with regional partners on the creation of safe zones in Syria.
IDC further calls on the Trump administration to take actionable steps to “deny the terrorists safe haven, transit, funding, and any form of support for their vile and sinister ideology.”
IDC shares the President’s call to ”expose and hold responsible those countries who support and finance terror groups like al Qaeda, Hezbollah, the Taliban and others that slaughter innocent people” and to pursue “the Islamist extremism that inspires them.” IDC also applauds the President’s condemnation of those “governments with egregious human rights records sit on the U.N. Human Rights Council.”
IDC will address each of these issues at its summit, October 24-26, 2017 in Washington, DC.