Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein has called on the United States to launch a “peace offensive” in the Middle East, that she said should begin with a “weapons embargo” against the countries fueling terrorism in the region.
Several countries in the Middle East are battling Daesh and other Takfiri terrorists who are mostly sponsored by the United States or its regional allies such as Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Washington has sold weapons worth billions of dollars to these countries. Only last week the State Department approved the potential sale of $1.15 billion more in arms to Riyadh to replace items destroyed in the war.
Stein, a physician, peace activist, and politician, said on Wednesday the United States needs “a new kind of offensive in the Middle East, because bombing terrorism and shooting terrorists is not quelling terrorism.”
"It's only fanning the flames of terrorism, the misery and the poverty that drive terrorism," she said during a town hall meeting organized by CNN.
"We are calling for a new kind of offensive, a peace offensive for the Middle East, that begins with a weapons embargo,” she added.
The activist said America and its allies are providing most of the weapons to the fighting forces in the war-torn countries, so Washington should initiate a weapons embargo.
The Green Party politician said Daesh does not pose an "imminent threat" to the US, so Washington should avoid using force against it.
She said the Takfiri group is "not about to launch a major attack against our country."
The Pentagon announced on August 1 that it had expanded its air offensive against Daesh terrorists, and launched airstrikes against purported terrorist targets inside Libya.
Stein said the United States should demand that its allies in the Middle East stop funding “terrorist enterprises” in the region.
She went on to call for Washington to base its diplomatic ties with Middle Eastern countries on human rights records and international law, from Israel to Saudi Arabia.
Stein argued America’s “ill-conceived plan” has created “failed states” and caused “mass refugee migrations and repeated terrorist threats that get worse with each cycle.”
The US, Saudi Arabia and a number of other Western countries, along with Persian Gulf monarchies and Turkey, back terrorist groups fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, where the conflict has left more than 4,7000 people dead and more than two million displaced.