By Tabora Bojang
The National Assembly Member for Jeshwang, Sheriff Sarr, has strongly condemned the on-going military strikes by the United States and Israel against Iran, saying it is about time The Gambia and other countries stand up and challenge the continuous violation of international law by the US and Israel.
Sarr launched a blistering attack on US President Donald Trump for repeatedly disregarding international law and due processes.
“It is about time we act as a government. It is terrifying and inhumane to see what the US and Israel are doing to Iran and also in Palestine. They are bombing innocent children each day and just recently they [US, Israel] bombed innocent children at an Iranian primary school. What do they gain from bombing innocent children? It is inhumane,” Sheriff Sarr said at the National Assembly’s adjournment debate yesterday.
He said the nations of the world have a moral responsibility to speak out and condemn the atrocities in the strongest terms.
Sarr also questioned the silence of the international community against the passing of a law by the Israeli parliament this week which seeks death penalty specifically for Palestinians. “The Israeli Knesset parliamentarians were celebrating the passing of that law with champagne bottles. And what do the human rights bodies say about that? If The Gambia had passed such a discriminatory law, they [the West] would have started imposing sanctions on us. It is about time we stand as a nation and as one ummah. We are Muslims, and we have Christians among us who are suffering too. During this past Ramadan, people struggled to break their fast because they were bombed everyday and forcibly asked to leave their homes. How can a single nation want to control the whole Gulf and nobody talks about it? It is really unfair. America is doing the same by Donald Trump. Who is he? Is he [Trump] not a human being like us? He has his powers and we also have our powers and Allah will judge,” Sarr fumed.
At the start of the war, Gambian leader, Adama Barrow who is currently the chairman of OIC called for de-escalation and a return to dialogue to restore peace in the Middle East. He held telephone calls with the leaders of the Gulf states of Kuwait, UAE and Jordan where he specifically denounced Iranian attacks on Gulf countries which were largely in response to earlier US and Israel operations against Iran on 28th February.
