It would be a kind of misinformation to say that the rise of populist movements in Western democracies is exclusively due to the use of misinformation, or that it is a threat to democracy and not a consequence of the retreat from the democracy and human rights values that have marked Western policies over the past decade. Let ‘s say frankly that the rise of racist populism in the Western countries is attributable to the fact that this phenomenon has not been dealt with as a problem from early on.

Racial isolationist policies have been adopted, in a clear incitement of hatred against refugees, migrants and population categories coming originally from Middle East, Africa and Latin countries. The term "terrorism" was employed within part of misinformation as a means to justify these isolationist policies and the withdrawal of major powers from participating in containing turmoil, violence and wars in the Middle East, in addition to similar policies against millions of refugees and migrants who have fled their countries in search of shelter and safe place.

These transformations and the rise of populism in Western democracies are caused by the fact that those with influence and interests no longer see a way to rise other than poisoning the masses with extremist racist ideas and turning on the values of democracy, human rights and world peace. I agree with those saying that disinformation is not limited to democratic countries. However, this phrase will remain incomplete if we do not affirm that misleading information and its dissemination are attributable a lack of conscience in a world that has remained silent on tyranny and done nothing to support the free Arab Spring revolutions.

In fact, our biggest problem did not lie in the dissemination of misleading information and lies about the Arab Spring revolutions, but in the complicity of Western countries with the tyrants and the tyranny axes of Iran and Saudi Arabia and their silence over their counter-wars on popular uprisings. Western democracies preferred their narrow interests over the values of freedom and human rights. Therefore, I see that as much as we need to look for the appropriate measures to create a strong credible information environment, we also need to create a global political environment whose basic references are the criteria of freedom, democracy and human rights, without discrimination on the basis of race, religion and geographical origin.

The rise of populism in the Western democracies represents the other side of the Middle East’s dictatorships and extremist groups whose survival and persistence are welcome by the West due to the latter's fears of change, uprisings and revolutions demanding democracy, freedom and human rights.

The West's policy is based on the demonization of the Arab Spring revolutions and the amplification of terrorism, in line with the regimes that accuse whoever opposing them of terrorism charges in order to justify repressive and violent practices against popular uprisings, protestors and opponents. The widespread crackdown and violence against the popular uprising in Iran is just an example for misinformation and misrepresentation of facts.

True terrorism manifests itself in the practices of the Iranian authorities and Revolutionary Guards, and not in the popular rejection by the mass uprising against the mullahs' regime. Amisa Amini is a model for the suffering of the Iranian people from repression, torture, arrests and assassinations that affect everyone who raises their voice in the face of the mullahs' regime and its brutal repression against its opponents. The suppression of the popular uprising in Iran is an extension of the wars by the tyrants against the popular revolutions demanding democracy, change, the rule of the people and the state of law.

The policies of Western democratic countries have not committed to the values of democracy and support for peaceful uprisings. These Western democracies have participated in demonizing the Arab Spring and worked with its tyrannical allies to crack down on the revolutions of freedom and democracy. Our societies in Yemen, Libya and Syria were punished through bloody and destructive wars, while our peoples in Egypt and Tunisia through coups.

The Arab Spring wave was met with wars and violence, and this led to failure of democratic changes and transformations. The success of change and popular revolutions could have pushed democratic transformations to unprecedented horizons. 

Nevertheless, it turned out that in order to take positions in favor of democracy and the right of peoples to choose their rulers and their change, relevant peoples should be first distinguished on the basis of their cultures, their ethnicities and geographical affiliations, as well as on the basis of the effect of their freedom and democracy on the interests and influence of Western countries.

The history of mankind, nations, conflicts and wars is not unfamiliar with the war of falsifying facts, misinformation and lies. But what distinguishes our world today is the modern technology and the tremendous development in means of communication and information, which are used as arenas of lies and misinformation wars. Thus, the new thing here is the rapid spread of falsified news and information thanks to advances in means of communications in the era of image, information, the Internet and social media platforms.

Misleading information and lies are mainly produced by regimes here and there in favor of their political orientations and interests without caring about the truth or the values of press freedom and human rights. The political positions of regimes and States often provide a suitable environment for the spread of misleading information and lies, and for the use of electronic militias in propaganda campaigns based on fabrications, lies and fraud with the aim of misrepresenting the truth and confusing public opinion.

We will not have a complete picture of the reasons for the spread of misleading information if we limit ourselves to looking for their promotion means in the press, the Internet and social media platforms. The media with all its branches, including the electronic media and social media platforms is only a battlefield of warfare fueled by rogue regimes and armed militias.

Unfortunately, major powers are involved in such wars when their interests require them to generalize an orientation that corresponds to their narrative of events and issues tabled for public debate. The dictatorial and ideologized regimes involved in wars against their societies and their neighbors are the ones most nurturing the environment of lies and misleading information.

Thanks to lessons learned from the Arab Spring revolutions, we have a lot to say about the war of disinformation and the dissemination of false information. The war of disinformation was among the forms of an all-out war that has affected everything related to the Arab Spring countries, including their revolutions, societies, States, and existence.

The dependence of the position, with respect to the sovereignty of states, democracy, human rights, and fascist wars against peoples, on the balance of interests and influence of Western countries and on the criteria of the geopolitical location of the war theatre has contributed to the rise of fascism in certain geopolitical regions like Russia and Iran, to the increased populism in Western, to expanding the space of turning on the value system of democracy and the modern State, and to spreading wars and turmoil across the world.

The democratic world has colluded with the regimes serving as production machines of lies and misinformation, pinning the stigma of terrorism on our peoples in order to justify the counter-revolution wars on societies that revolted for freedom, democracy and justice in 2011, the year of the Arab Spring revolutions. 

Our peoples have expressed courageous stances towards the policies of tyranny and oppression, and their struggles in this field have culminated in revolutions and uprisings whose courage and nobility got praised by the whole world. Since 2011, there has been a clear battle between the democracy and human rights camp on the one side, and the counter-revolution camp that wages its various wars across the Arab countries with the aim of having subjects, not citizens enjoying all the rights of citizenship on the other.

In all my lectures and speeches in global conferences and on the campus of prestigious universities in the USA, UK and EU, I have always emphasized that the Arab Spring revolutions have placed the whole world before the moment of truth, and forced the long-established democracies to choose between two options: establishing the credibility of their claims that they support democracy, human rights, freedoms and the peoples struggle for justice and democracy, or retreating from the entire human rights system and their global heritage, a move whose repercussions will not only be limited within the borders of the third-world countries that have turned into great seclusions because of their rulers, but will also extend to the advanced democracies in Europe and America.

Speaking from very important global platforms years before Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, I stressed that we are all in one world, and that no one can build walls of isolation within his own borders as an a way to stay safe from the fall of any part of this world into wars, chaos and non-state.

The world has abandoned the pro-freedom and -democracy revolutions in the Arab region, allowing the anti-democratic axes like Iran, Saudi Arabia and Russia declare their war of revenge on our societies for nothing but because we wanted to be human like others, and we rose peacefully for the sake of dignity, the rule of law, civil society, equality and human rights.

Let us agree that our world is dominated by a global system that is in a state of crisis and is no longer viable, and it is time to change it. When I talk about the crisis of the world order, I am referring to the clearly increasing state of retreating from democratic values and human rights, as manifested through the discriminatory response to a revolutionary Arab people believing in freedom, democracy and equality and making sacrifices for them, and to another European one believing in the same values and making sacrifices for them.

How do the international community and its major powers, which are facing the Russian challenge in Ukraine, look today at a regime like the Assad regime in Syria? How does the civilized democratic West accept the reintegration of a murderous regime like the Assad regime, a sectarian regime that killed a million Syrians and displaced five million and summoned Iran and its militias, along with Russia, to share its war on its people?

Is there any difference between the invasion in Europe and the invasion in the Middle East? Is there a difference between criminal regimes or between genocides, though even harsher, broader and more horrific in our region?!

What’s left of the slogans of major democracies in the West, where democracy, freedom and human rights have been raises as the headlines and slogans of policies since the end of World War II, whereas these democracies are sponsoring a genocidal war on the Yemeni people, a war waged by Iran and Saudi Arabia in direct, indirect and brutal ways?

Yemen is part of this world, but it is experiencing the tragedies of the fascist war and the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, alone and defenseless from any real support.

For eight years, our people has been facing an all-out war of revenge, a fierce war that represents a new pattern of undermining the life foundations of the entire population. The state collapsed and sectarian Houthi militias overran the capital and cities. In light of the non-payment of salaries and the collapse of the health and service system, the Houthi militias have taken control of international aid. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have bombed our cities and infrastructure, established militias loyal to them in the city of Aden. 

The UAE has occupied Yemen’s ports, oil-and-gas facilities, and the islands of Socotra and Mayun, while major powers keep giving praise and blessings to the production machine of misinformation and lies prompted by States involved in the war in Yemen.

The de facto authority of the Iranian-backed Houthi militia is in fact a daily declaration of war against urban and rural population in areas under its control. It is in no way a national entity facing the Saudi-Emirati occupation of Yemen. It is using the Saudi-Emirati occupation as a false excuse to justify its war against the Yemenis.

The Saudi-Emirati coalition has waged its war to divide Yemen and seize control of its strategic islands, coastlines, ports and gas-and-oil resources, while raising a false slogan that it supports legitimacy and confronts the Houthi militias. In fact, this militia is getting stronger thanks to this irresponsible coalition that is running the war to destroy Yemen.

We call on the world to stop this brutal war against our Yemeni people. We call on the world to support our people to restore their state and complete the transitional period in accordance with the three references represented by UNSC resolutions on Yemen, the agreement on transfer of power and the outcomes of the national dialogue. 

We call on the democratic world to stop supporting Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which are implicated in war crimes against humanity in Yemen, and to stop arms sales to them. We call on the international community to support us in bringing war criminals to justice and prosecuting those involved in war crimes in Yemen before international courts. We call on the world to impose restrictions on warlords and militia leaders and not to deal with them as political parties.

We call upon the world to respect the right of our people to life and put an end to a fascist war, whose main parties are Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and their affiliated militias, on our people.