ForMENA Council for MENA affairs
ForMENA strongly condemns and denounces the terrible terrorist attacks that hit many European and Arab cities, especially the latest attacks in Beirut, Paris and Tunis and before them, Ankara as well as the crash of the Russian airplane over the Sinai in Egypt.
This insane and organized growth of the phenomenon of terrorism urges us to consider seriously revisiting the foreign and cooperation policies between the MENA countries and the European Union; in addition to the need for taking into consideration the findings and recommendations of the conferences and activities held by the ForMENA last year on the growth of regional terrorism, including the following:
- The need for unifying regional and international efforts in order to fight this phenomenon that has been spreading over MENA region and has crossed the borders to reach the EU countries, and is now threatening to spread even further if no measure is taken immediately.
- The security solutions alone may succeed punctually but what is need to fight this bloody phenomenon is an in-depth study that tackles its root causes and a consideration of the mechanisms used by the different parties to fight it.
In this regard, the ForMENA is urgently calling for:
- The dismantling of the environment hosting extremist thought, through intensifying the international efforts to find an immediate solution to the Middle East crises, specifically the Syrian, the Iraqi and the Libyan crisis in addition to a global settlement to the Palestinian issue.
- The establishment of a regional fund to support anti-terrorist activities socially, culturally, educationally and with the contribution of both EU and Arab countries through tight cooperation between official institutions and specialized NGOs.
- The creation of a specialized civil observatory to monitor the growth of terrorism in the Mediterranean, gathering researchers, experts and representatives of CSOs in order to strengthen early warning system and social risks mapping in the region.
ForMENA also hopes that the last terrorist attacks that hit Europe will not affect the situation of the refugees who crossed the borders looking for peace and security and fleeing the conflicts hitting their countries in the Middle East and North Africa. ForMENA will also work on adopting visions and proposals through its partners’ network in order to reach effective mechanisms of action to face this phenomenon in a specialized and professional way. We hope that the efforts aiming at fighting this scourge that undermines the human and freedom values and promotes violence and fanaticism as a language for dispute settlement will be united.
—End—
Council for MENA Affairs “ForMENA”
Brussels on 25 November 2015