New York: Qatar has reiterated its call for the UN Security Council to implement its resolutions and international consensus by adopting a binding decision that obliges Israel to end occupation of Palestinian and Arab territories, stop settlement activities and practices that violate international law and take action based on a time-bound plan to achieve the two-state solution based on well-known foundations, including the Arab peace initiative.
Qatar’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Sheikha Alya Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani, made the remarks as she addressed a Security Council session on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian issue.
She said Qatar has always tried to play a positive and active role in achieving a permanent, just and sustainable settlement to the Palestinian issue and was among the first to take steps to enhance chances of reaching a peaceful solution. She said Qatar is part of the international consensus on backing the rights of the Palestinian people, especially their right to self-determination, a consensus that was obvious in UN General Assembly’s decisions and the recognition by the majority of countries of a Palestinian state.
She said Arabs and Palestinians took steps in line with the basic right of the Palestinian people to national unity and to establish an independent state but such steps require support from the international community by taking steps to end the Israeli occupation of Arab lands, build Palestinian state institutions, end unjust siege on the Gaza Strip and rebuild it and provide opportunities for a decent life for its residents.
She said regional security, stability and peace, including those of Israel, necessitate steps to establish a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital that lives peacefully side by side with Israel to ensure Palestinians’ rights.
Sheikha Alya called for an end to violation of the freedom of worship by Israel which tries to break into Al Aqsa Mosque and prevent people from entering it.
She said Qatar condemns such violations that threaten chances of peace in the Middle East.
A few months after a donors conference on Gaza reconstruction in Cairo, the enclave still awaits efforts after infrastructure, residential buildings and public facilities were damaged by the Israeli aggression, she said, adding that Qatar addressed the huge humanitarian needs by pledging $1bn during the conference.
Referring to the cold wave in the region and the suffering of millions of Syrian and Iraqi refugees and displaced people, she said it is a humanitarian duty of the international community to increase financial and moral support.
The humanitarian situation should be a motivation to cope with the original causes of the crisis, she said, adding that Qatar responded to UN appeals and continued to provide urgent aid and became the top contributor to the UN Emergency Response Fund for Syria.
The Syrian crisis, in its fifth year, obliges everyone to work to end terrible crimes perpetrated by the regime, which destabilised the region and led to the spread of terrorism, she said, point out that everyone agrees that the solution lies in a political transition based on the Geneva declaration to achieve the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people.
The diplomat said non-compliance with Security Council resolutions, including Resolution No. 2118, is alarming as the latest report of a fact-finding mission of Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons had confirmed allegations of systematic use of prohibited chemical weapons such as chlorine gas in Syria.
Sheikha Alya reiterated Qatar’s support for the Syrian people to end violence and crimes and achieve their legitimate aspirations to preserve the sovereignty, independence and unity of Syria.
QNA
