How peace can be attained

A joint Arab military force was conceived at the 26th Arab League Summit convened in Egypt on March 28.

It is hoped that this commendable resolution by the Arab heads of states will form the nucleus of a collective Arab army, one of the priority aspirations for millions in the Fertile Crescent region, following nine successive military defeats in the last decades. 

It is argued, hypothetically, that had there been such a joint Arab military force of 40,000 fighters, the blood of nearly 250,000 Syrian victims would have been spared during the last four years, and Iraqi sectarian genocide that made nearly half-a-million victims would have been averted during the 2006-2009 clashes.

The summit may have pleased the 22 participants, including presidents, emirs and heads of states, happy to know that the formation of a military force will defend their regimes, but it did not address the root causes of terrorism and radicalism in our region, mainly unemployment and poverty, which create fertile ground where more radicalised Arabs can be recruited; 50 million Arabs are unemployed, according to 2014 statistics

Moreover, Arab League figures indicate that 28 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line of four dollars a day.

These figures show that our societies are an incubator for terrorists and suicide bombers.

Economist Jan Aziz wrote that the summit could have addressed itself to the heads of states as well as the man in the street by announcing the establishment of an unemployment fund to be financed by Arab banks, the deposits of which reached over $3 trillion, to be exact $3,100 billion, according to 2014 statistics.

To solve the unemployment problem, it is required to finance small-scale and medium-sized projects by having banks grant nearly $120 billion.

That would solve problems like irrigation projects in Sudan, development plans in Jordan or agricultural mega-schemes in Egypt.

The deposits in Arab banks are 30 times more than what is needed to overcome the unemployment challenge.

Last month, business magazine Forbes published the names of 40 Arabs whose wealth adds up to more than $146 billion and who could have been “induced” by the summit to invest some of their wealth in projects that target poverty pockets, where the average per capita income is less than $1,700.

The root causes of terrorism in our area are unemployment, poverty and ideological indoctrination. When this triad of vices is addressed, our region will be able to reclaim its peace and prosperity.