Ex-Egyptian FM Warns Against Sponsors Interfering in Arab States' Affairs

The interference of foreign sponsors in the domestic affairs of Arab states will result in them pursuing their own agenda, former Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy said Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Fahmy added that the Middle East should not complain that the solutions to their problems are imported from abroad.

"If we attempt to find another sponsor to carry the responsibility that we need to carry ourselves, then we will fail… Sponsors by definition have their own agendas," Fahmy said at the international Valdai Club’s Middle East forum in Moscow.

It is time countries in the Middle East grow up politically, so that they stop being a source of problems for the entire world, he said.

"The Middle East has to grow up. It cannot always be a source of problems in world politics," Nabil Fahmy said.

The Middle East is a crisis-torn region with a number of states mired in wars such as Syria or instability like Iraq. The international community is exerting efforts to help regional countries bring order and peace to the region. International mediators are also involved in resolving the decades-old conflict between Palestinians and Israelis over Palestine’s statehood.