Syrian Scholar Rateb Al-Nabulsi Criticizes US-Led Coalition: The West Has Done Nothing for the Syrian People

Following are excerpts from an interview with Syrian scholar Muhammad Rateb Al-Nabulsi, which aired on Al-Jazeera Network, which aired on November 13, 2014:

Muhammad Rateb Al-Nabulsi: For three years, a people is being killed. Hundreds of thousands have been killed. Six million homes have been destroyed. Half the people have been displaced. This is unimaginable, yet the world remains silent – no word of objection, no condemnation, nothing. But when the small [Yazidi] sect was threatened – not even killed, merely threatened – the whole world was up in arms. Aircraft carriers were mobilized. Bombardments were carried out without warning, without the Security Council, and with no coalition.

This contradiction is intolerable. This terrible contradiction in Western conduct shows us that they have interests, not principles, in mind. The truth of the matter is that Western values have collapsed. The Syrian revolution has exposed [them]. All the principles, values, and liberties purported by the West, have been trampled underfoot.

Interviewer: Do you think that the West should have intervened at an early stage, in order to stop the oppression against the Syrian people?

Muhammad Rateb Al-Nabulsi: When the strong can stop the killing, it earns a place of respect in human society if it does. But if it witnesses the daily killing for three years – almost four years now – yet it does not lift a finger, and then, just because a small sect is threatened with death, the entire world is up in arms – this represents a terrible contradiction in Western conduct. If it had principles and values, it would have acted a long time ago. It is as if they wanted the entire Syrian people to be finished off.

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