No everyone doing their fair share

fair share

Obviously not everyone is doing their fair share.  The wealthier gulf states have taken in no refugees since the Syrian conflict began.  Those states closest to Syria have taken in millions of people.  Many of these refugees have lived in tent cities and have been dependent of the host country as well as international relief efforts.

At some point, the “six Gulf countries — Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain must step up to the plate and offer assistance, relief and shelter to those who have been impacted by civil war and by the Islamic State thugs.

Hopefully, President Obama will speak very directly the Saudi King on this issue.  I would be taking him to McDonalds if I were Obama.

The United States has taken in 1500 Syrian refugees since their civil war began.  We could do far better!

Iranian Foreign Minister educates US Republican Senators

npr.org:

Republican senators’ letter to Iran about ongoing nuclear talks has prompted a lengthy response from Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who delivered an overview of international law as he critiqued the letter.

Zarif said he was astonished by the letter, saying it suggests the U.S. lawmakers “not only do not understand international law” — a subject in which he is a professor — “but are not fully cognizant of the nuances of their own Constitution when it comes to presidential powers in the conduct of foreign policy,” according to Iran’s Foreign Ministry.

The Iranian minister said that “in our view, this letter has no legal value and is mostly a propaganda ploy.”

His response (we have more of it below) came after it was announced Monday that 47 Senate Republicans who oppose a potential deal with Iran over its nuclear program had signed a letter to the country’s leaders.

Coming two weeks before the deadline for envoys to reach general terms with Iran, the signatories wrote that they had been observing the negotiations over potentially relaxing economic sanctions — and told Iran’s leaders they were concerned “that you may not fully understand our constitutional system.”

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