By Gad Yateem
BEIRUT
A prominent Lebanese politician on Monday called for allowing both Turkey and Iran to join the Cairo-based Arab League.
Neither terrorism nor the self-styled Islamic State group can be fought without creating a new regional system that expands the Arab League to include non-Arab states Turkey and Iran, Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt declared.
He told online newspaper Anbaa, a mouthpiece of his Progressive Socialist Party, that the old Arab system appeared to be crumbling with the emergence of extremist groups prepared to carry out terrorist acts.
"We need to explore new political ideas to escape from this crisis, which threatens Arab national security in unprecedented ways – from the war in Iraq, Libya and Yemen to the phenomenon of the Islamic State," Jumblatt said.
Arab countries alone would not be able to fight terrorism, he said, going on to call for a reconsideration of the concept on which the Arab League was established.
Jumblatt stressed the need for a new regional system that also included regional heavyweights Turkey and Iran.
Describing Turkey and Iran as two "major regional poles," Jumblatt called for stepping up cooperation with the two countries with a view to confronting rampant terrorism in Iraq, Syria and other states.
By admitting Turkey and Iran as members, he said, the Arab League could potentially "change the course of current events in the region."
Jumblatt described these events as "drastic" ones, which, he said, had the potential to alter the region's historical, political and national realities.
www.aa.com.tr/en
