Maajid Says Iran And Saudi Arabia's Proxy War Is Responsible For The Rise Of ISIS And Yazidi Genocide

11 November 2017, 14:07

If you follow the proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran you will find it's responsible for most of the Middle East's woes, says Maajid Nawaz.

US President Donald Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin have agreed to fight ISIS in Syria until it is defeated, the Kremlin says.

It said a statement was prepared by experts after the leaders met briefly on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in Vietnam on Saturday.

Maajid Nawaz said, though, that cause of most of the Middle East's woes was the proxy war conducted by Saudi Arabia and Iran tracking its way across the region, including the rise of ISIS and its genocide against Yazidi Christians.

He argued that theatre of the war was shifting from Syria, "having exhausted all the pawns for war there", to Yemen, which was "barrel bombed to oblivion", to Lebanon.

The LBC presenter said: "The proxy war appears to be moving to Lebanon. This Saudi-Iran proxy war in the Middle East between two competing sectarian theocracies is what's pretty much destroying the Middle East.

"It's causing the refugee crisis, causing the potential and near genocide of entire peoples in the region like the Yazidis, causing the rise of fanatical jihadist theocratic violence and terrorism, causing the empowerment and entrenchment of the terrorist group Hezbollah across the region because Iran is backing them.

"The cause of the woes of the Middle East in contemporary times, I believe, can be pinned right down to this Saudi-Iran proxy war."

Watch the full clip at the top of this page.