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East County News Service
Photo: Arabo speaking at rally for Iraqi Christians last month in El Cajon
August 6, 2014 (El Cajon)—Mark Arabo, a local Chaldean leader, and a coalition he has assembled will meet with U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice at the White House on Thursday and possibly Secretary of State John Kerry. A press release announcing the upcoming meeting states that they will discuss the Christian genocide in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon by the terrorist group ISIS.
The coalition seeks to build on a humanitarian resolution drafted by Mark Arabo and Congressman Juan Vargas that was approved by the House of Representatives Friday night. The coalition will ask President Barack Obama to issue an executive order that meets or exceeds language in the resolution, as well as to authorize targeted drone strikes against ISIS. They aim to ask the President to recognize the situation in Iraq as a refugee crisis, to immediately increase visas and to raise the annual asylum ceiling for Middle Easterners from 10,000 to 40,000.
Additionally, the coalition is working with resettlement agencies, like Catholic Relief Services, and the State Department to ensure that humanitarian aide in Iraq is routed correctly, and to rally the United Nations.
“There are people in Northern Iraq who don't have diapers, water, food, etc. which is why Mark and his team are searching for humanitarian agencies to help on the ground in Northern Iraq,” a press release on behalf of Arabo states.
Arabo is the Chief Executive Officer of the Neighborhood Market Association and a national spokesman for Iraqi Christians. An American-born Chaldean and a San Diego State University graduate, he has been a vocal advocate calling for protection of Iraq’s Christians and other minorities for the past seven weeks, including helping to organize a recent prayer vigil that drew an estimated 2,000 people in El Cajon.
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