DOHA: The Prime Minister and Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al Thani has warned against escalation of the Syrian crisis to a Sunni-Shia conflict saying such a situation will be catastrophic.
“That’s a very dangerous scenario,” the Prime Minister told CNN in an interview yesterday.
“My fear, if there is a Sunni-Shia war or escalation ... (is that) nobody will win in this. A fire will burn everybody. We should avoid that by all means,” he added.
“We should work for peace respecting each other and solve our differences on the table,” he added.
The Prime Minister, who is in New York to attend the UN General Assembly meeting called on world powers to prepare a “Plan B” for Syria and set up a no-fly zone to provide a safe haven inside the country in case international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi fails to make progress in the crisis. “I believe that within weeks we should have a Plan B. You need to make safe-haven areas first of all for the people. That will require a no-fly zone,” said Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem.
He said he believed that Arab and European countries would be ready to take part, despite their public reluctance to commit the forces needed for such a mission.
“I believe there are a lot of Arab countries who will participate. And there are also European countries who will participate. If the Syrians want to break that, that’s another subject. That also needs somebody to have the teeth to tell them: ‘Don’t do that, because that will not be allowed’,” said the Prime Minister. Sheikh Hamad also said he hoped that Washington would focus more on Syria after the presidential election in six weeks’ time.
“We are in an election period, so maybe this isn’t a diplomatic way to say it, but I hope that after the election the American government looks at this matter in different way.”
Sheikh Hamad denied that Qatar had been arming the rebels, saying that his country provided logistic and humanitarian help. He stressed that Qatar is not looking for military intervention but for a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis.
“I hope even Russia and China would join us to find a solution to the problem. Not exactly how they want and how we want, but how the Syrian people want it,” said the Prime Minister.
