NEW YORK: The Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani yesterday addressed the open debate of the UN Security Council, which focused on threats to international peace and security posed by terrorism.
The summit-level meeting held at the UN headquarters was chaired by US President Barack Obama along with a number of heads of state.
In his speech, the Emir expressed the hope that the meeting would enhance international cooperation and collective efforts to combat international terrorism.
The Emir said that there was agreement in the international community that terrorism posed a grave danger, stressing the need to address this phenomenon as a priority, adding that people in the Middle East had suffered from terrorism, including the targeting of innocent civilians and civilian institutions and the spreading of terror to achieve political objectives.
The Emir said no civilisation in the modern era had been spared by terrorism and it was a mistake to link such political violence with a specific culture, religion or nationality.
Cross-border terrorism and the use of modern means of communication to promote it could not be addressed without cooperation among nations, the Emir noted.
“We in Qatar consider ourselves part of international solidarity in the face of terrorism and we are committed to addressing it at the national level as well as at the international level through interaction with international efforts to combat it,” the Emir said.
A military response was inevitable because of the imminent danger posed by terrorist groups that recruit and move fighters across international borders, the Emir said, adding that the immediate threat should not make us oblivious to the circumstances, causes and motives that led to its inception.
The spread of terrorist movements to the degree that they take control of territories and populations in a country is possible only in the event of the absence or failure of the state and the security vacuum resulting from that, or when the state turns into a tool of suppression and killing that leaves no outlet for free speech and dialogue for political groups and does not create space for gradual peaceful reform, the Emir said, noting that there were regimes that were waging genocidal wars against their own people.
To make efforts aimed at eradicating terrorism bear fruit, the state must ensure security and stability and not become a tool of oppression, he said.
The Emir said terrorism could not be defeated without recruiting the affected communities to combat it, adding that communities should not be given the choice between terrorism and bloody tyranny, as in Syria, or between terrorism and sectarian exclusion, as was the case in Iraq.
The Emir noted that previous experience showed that military action alone could not solve all problems, and it must be a part of a political solution that opens horizons to a better future, adding that violence begets violence if it is not part of a comprehensive political solution.
The world’s position on targeting of civilians must be the same regardless of whether it is done by an authoritarian state, an occupying state or a terrorist organisation, the Emir said.
The impression that the international community is helpless in the face of the killing of hundreds of thousands of civilians should not remain, he said.
Countering terrorism does not give one a licence to act outside the purview of international law and human rights and fundamental freedoms, and it is not permissible to punish innocent civilians for terrorism, the Emir said.
The Emir concluded by reaffirming Qatar’s support for all efforts based on international consensus to put an end to the phenomenon of foreign terrorist fighters and terrorism in all its manifestations.
THE PENINSULA
Emir meets world leaders
NEW YORK: The Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani yesterday met a number of heads of delegations participating in the 69th session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, at the Seat of the Permanent Mission of Qatar to the United Nations.
The Emir met President Dr Mohamed Moncef Marzouki of Tunisia, and President Bronislaw Komorowski of Poland. He also met the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Earlier, the Emir met Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Albanian President Bujar Nishani at the UN headquarters.
Discussions during the meetings dealt with bilateral relations and ways of developing them, as well as a number of topics on the agenda of the current session of the UN General Assembly.
The meetings were attended by several members of the official delegation accompanying the Emir.
QNA
