Sheikh Tamim: Any talks must respect Qatar sovereignty

Agencies
July 22, 2017

Doha, Jul 22: The Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has said that his country is ready for dialogue to resolve a diplomatic crisis with a Saudi-led group, but stressed that any solution to the crisis must respect his country's sovereignty.

"We are open to dialogue to resolve the outstanding problems [so long as Qatar's] sovereignty is respected," Sheikh Tamim said in a televised address on Friday, his first since Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt cut ties with the peninsula.

Qatar has been targeted by unprecedented campaign, Sheikh Tamim said, adding that he valued Kuwait's mediation and the support of the United States, Turkey and Germany for their efforts to resolve the crisis.

The Emir thanked Turkey for "putting into force quickly a cooperation agreement signed between us and meeting our basic needs".

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim on the Gulf crisis

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim: "People are amazed to see Qatari people maintaining high level of morale despite the unprecedented smearing campaign." http://aje.io/wwhlw

Posted by Al Jazeera English on Friday, July 21, 2017

"It is clear that the campaign against us was pre-planned. We took a test and passed it," Sheikh Tamim said.

The Emir hailed the solidarity and resolve that Qataris have shown in the face of the crisis, and said it would make his country, which will host football's World Cup in 2022, even more resilient.

'Smear campaign'

"People are amazed to see Qatari people maintaining high level of morale despite the unprecedented smearing campaign," Sheikh Tamim said.

"It was a true ethical trial. Our people have passed the test with colours, and we have held steadfast to our principles and traditions even in the time of trials, simple for the reason that we respect ourselves.

"I call on all of you to continue to hold on to that."

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE and Egypt have imposed sanctions on Qatar, accusing it of financing extremist groups and allying with their arch-foe Iran, allegations that Doha denies.

In his address, the Emir stressed that Qatar was fighting terrorism not to please others, but because it believes in that mission.

"Qatar is fighting terrorism, relentlessly and without compromises, and there is international recognition of Qatar's role in this regard," he said.

The US and other Western countries have dispatched senior envoys to the region to press both sides to resolve the dispute.

'Undermined our sovereignty'

The crisis was precipitated after Qatar's News Agency, the country's state media, was hacked to post a false statement of the Emir purportedly critical of the US foeign policy.

Sheikh Tamim said the four countries tried to undermine Qatar's foreign policy, and muzzle freedom of expression.

"The perpetrators have undermined our sovereignty and independence by fabricating false statements to mislead international public opinion," the Emir said.

Qatar's ministry of interior on July 20 said the cyberattacks originated in the UAE.

The Saudi-led sanctions include closing Qatar's only land border, refusing Qatar access to their airspace and ordering their citizens back from Qatar. The measures have disrupted the import of food and other items, and caused foreign banks to scale back business with Qatar.

Initially, the Saudi-led bloc issued a tough 13-point list of demands needed to resolve the crisis, including shutting down news outlets including Al Jazeera, cutting ties with Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, limiting ties with Iran and expelling Turkish troops stationed in the country.

Qatar refused to bow to the demands within a 10-day deadline, and the anti-Qatar bloc has begun to shift its focus toward six principles on combatting extremism and terrorism.

The speech comes a day after Qatar's ruler issued a decree setting new rules for defining terrorism, freezing funding and terrorism financing, and established national terrorism lists.

Earlier in the day, US Secretary of State Rex said the US was satisfied with Qatar's efforts to address concerns about terror financing and counterterrorism.

He urged Qatar's neighbours to lift a land blockade as a "sign of good faith".

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News Network
March 21,2024

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Israeli military siege, hunger, and diseases will soon become the main killer in Gaza, says commissioner- general of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

Philippe Lazzarini, who heads the UNRWA for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, took to X on Wednesday to vent his concern for the growing hunger and spread of diseases as a result of the Israeli siege on the besieged strip.

He said starvation and illness may soon be the main killer in Gaza.

"This fabricated and catastrophic level of hunger can still be reversed by flooding Gaza with food and life-saving assistance," Lazzarini said.

"More than ever humanity requires political will,” the UNRWA chief added.

In a press release on March 19, UNRWA said that “famine is imminent in the Gaza Strip, especially for isolated populations in northern Gaza deprived of humanitarian aid.”

The statement noted that the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), in a latest food security outlook, concluded that up to 1.1 million people in Gaza are facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.

“Nutrition screenings conducted in February by UNICEF and UNRWA show that rates of acute malnutrition among children in northern Gaza and Rafah have nearly doubled since January,” it said.

The Israeli regime has accused UNRWA staff of being involved in the October 7 attack by the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas against the occupied territories, prompting a number of its western allies to suspend funding for the UN agency.

On Wednesday, an agreement was reached by US congressional leaders and the White House on a massive funding bill will continue a ban on US funding for UNRWA until March 2025, Reuters reported.

Earlier this year the US, Canada, Australia, Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Finland, Estonia, Japan, Austria and Romania  decided to cut their funding to the UNRWA, considered a lifeline for the Palestinians in Gaza.

France had also announced that it does not plan a new payment to fund UNRWA in the first quarter of 2024.

Condemning the suspension of funding, Lazzarini had said, “It would be immensely irresponsible to sanction an agency and an entire community…, especially at a time of war, displacement and political crises in the region.”

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News Network
March 26,2024

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There is no let-up in the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an “immediate ceasefire.”

Israel carried out air raids and artillery strikes on several parts of Gaza on Tuesday, hitting residential buildings and gatherings of displaced people, “killing and wounding hundreds of people”, the Palestinian Information Center said.

Among the victims are 15 people, including four women and children, who were killed in an attack on a house in the neighborhood of Mosbeh, north of Rafah.

Media reports also said that fighting on the ground continued unabated.

That’s while the UN Security Council on Monday adopted a resolution for an “immediate ceasefire” for the ongoing Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The resolution was put forward by the 10 non-permanent members of the UN Security Council. The US abstained and the 14 other council members all voted in favor of it.

After the vote, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wrote on social media platform X that failing to implement the resolution “would be unforgivable.”

Palestinian resistance movements have welcomed the resolution, but Israel’s minister for military affairs Yoav Gallant said Israel will not stop its attacks in Gaza. 

“We will operate against Hamas everywhere – including in places where we have not yet been,” Gallant said.

Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, also said in a post on X that the attacks will continue until all the captives taken by Hamas during its October 7 blitz are released.

Israel unleashed its war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

Since the start of the offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has killed more than 32,300 Palestinians and injured over 74,000 others.

The Tel Aviv regime has also imposed a “complete siege” on the territory, cutting off fuel, electricity, food, and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, said Israel has committed acts of genocide in Gaza.

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News Network
March 14,2024

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The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) says at least five people, including a staff member, were killed and 22 others wounded after Israeli forces targeted a food distribution centre in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini in a statement on Wednesday said that the strike hit one of the very few remaining UNRWA distribution centers in the eastern part of Rafah.

“Today’s attack on one of the very few remaining UNRWA distribution centers in the Gaza Strip comes as food supplies are running out, hunger is widespread and, in some areas, turning into famine,” Lazzarini said.

“Every day, we share the coordinates of all our facilities across the Gaza Strip with parties to the conflict," he continued.

He said the attack was carried out even though "the Israeli Army received the coordinates including of this facility yesterday."

Lazzarini further urged the protection of the UN, its staff, and its premises and called for an independent investigation.

Israel acknowledged an airstrike on a food aid distribution center in southern Gaza, which it claimed targeted and killed a high-ranking member of Hamas. 

Meanwhile, the statement by the UNRWA head added that since October 7, at least 165 team members have been killed while in the line of duty and more than 400 people sheltering in UN buildings also lost their lives due to Israel's attacks.

More than 150 of the agency’s facilities, including schools and shelters, have been hit in the war, with some destroyed, and UNRWA staff have reportedly been mistreated and humiliated while in Israeli detention centers, according to the UNRWA.

Six aid seekers killed in Israeli attack

Separately, the health ministry in the Gaza Strip said six people were killed in the latest attack on Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid at the Kuwait Roundabout in Gaza City.

The Wafa news agency said some 83 people who were wounded in the attack have been transferred to the al-Shifa Medical Complex in the city.

Over the past weeks, Israeli forces have increased their offensives on the Kuwait Roundabout, an area where large groups gather to wait for aid deliveries.

Israeli forces killed 11 people waiting for food aid at the roundabout on Monday night.

The Israeli military has restricted the delivery of humanitarian supplies to northern Gaza for weeks, and thousands of children are going without sufficient food and medication.

The prevention of aid convoys comes as humanitarian officials have already issued a dire warning, stating that unless a ceasefire is implemented and aid is significantly increased, the toll of malnutrition and disease is expected to rise, leading to an alarming loss of lives.

So far, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 31,272 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 73,024 others.

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