Paul Salem, Mohamed Ali Abdalla, Dr Omar Ashour, Fadel Lamen
The motion ‘This House believes that Arabs, not Nato, should be dealing with Libya,’ will be contested at the latest Doha Debate today at Qatar Foundation Headquarters at 7.30pm.
Debates’ chairman Tim Sebastian said that opinion in the Arab world was sharply divided between supporters of Western intervention and those favouring a regional response to the conflict.
“While no-one doubts that the Arab League has a dismal record in resolving crises among its members, there is a growing sense that Western actions are driven more by oil than humanitarian concerns,” he said.
“We are looking forward to hearing from the Arabs in our audience on whether there is an alternative course of action to Nato airstrikes and what they expect of their governments,” Sebastian added.
Speaking for the motion is Mohamed Ali Abdalla, deputy secretary general of The National Front for the Salvation of Libya - one of Libya’s most prominent opposition groups in exile.
He is joined by Paul Salem, founder of the Lebanese Centre for Policy Studies and now Director of the Carnegie Middle East Centre.
Opposing the motion is Fadel Lamen, President of the American-Libyan Council. He is a journalist, writer, and Middle East/North Africa expert and political and cultural adviser based in Washington, DC.
On his side is Dr Omar Ashour, who lectures in the politics of the modern Arab world at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter in the UK.