15 Nov, 2010
“War On Terror” Has “No Limits, Nor End, Nor Logic, Nor Legal Or Moral Conditions,” Qatar’s Emir Tells UN
Waging war against terrorism has not succeeded in achieving security, peace or prosperity, Qatar’s Emir told the United Nations General Assembly.
Sep 23 2010 – Waging war against terrorism has not succeeded in achieving security, peace or prosperity, Qatar’s Emir told the United Nations General Assembly. “To the contrary, it has spread destruction everywhere, deprived millions of people from their livelihoods, spread fear, and caused the killing and displacing of millions as well as economic and financial crises that shook the stability of the world and undermined the efforts made in dialogue among cultures,” Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani stressed.
The first century of the 21st century, he told the Assembly’s annual high-level debate, has been “blindly attacked” by the so-called war on terrorism. Decrying this as “a kind of war with no limits, nor end, nor logic, nor legal or moral conditions, the Emir added, “What we fear is for the war on terrorism to turn into commercial transactions, financial contracts and armies of mercenaries who kill outside of any international and human legitimacy. These are all very dangerous things.”
Excerpts from his speech
When I stood on this platform in September last year, I addressed the issue of the threats that beset our world. Unfortunately, these threats are still present, and have even increased and diversified, and we are not any closer to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, which we set for ourselves ten years ago during the Millennium Summit.
We believe that the malfunction that our world suffers from is not due to a lack of resources, but to mismanagement and lack of justice and equity. The economic and financial crisis, the global food crisis and the persistence of hunger, poverty and other challenges facing humanity today prompt us to rebuild our institutions and formulate their strategies to better respond to the challenges and crises facing the international community.
The time has come to reformulate the global economic system in order for it to achieve justice and equal opportunities for all.
Among the important international conferences and forums that Doha hosted this year, was the World Economic Forum Global Redesign Summit, which resulted in many proposals for improving the existing international structures and cooperative arrangements, in order to create an international system conducive to meeting the challenges of the twenty-first century. I call on decision-makers to discuss the proposals and adopt those which are appropriate.
You may all know that our region is still experiencing the highest degree of tension in the world. The question of Palestine has been awaiting a just solution for decades; the situation remains precarious in Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq; and the Iranian nuclear crisis requires a solution. We have repeatedly stressed the importance of reaching this solution through peaceful and diplomatic means, and in our view, a fruitful direct dialogue between the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran would contribute to the resolution of this crisis.
The strategic importance of the Arabian Gulf region stems from its geostrategic position, the fact that it is sitting on half of the world’s oil and gas reserves, and the fact that it is the source of one quarter of the world’s production of these two primary driving forces of the global economy. Let this be yet another consideration that prompts the international community to recognize the importance of political stability and security in the Middle East.
This is a very difficult goal that can only be achieved by renouncing the use of force, freeing the region of weapons of mass destruction without exception, and the settlement of bilateral disputes and regional conflicts on the basis of international law, the Charter of the United Nations, the resolutions of international legitimacy and the principles of justice and equity.
The persistence of Israel in violating international law and humanitarian values was reflected in the acts of piracy which were committed against peace activists who tried to break the unjust and inhuman siege imposed on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. This prompts us once again to call upon the international community to stand as one in demanding that Israel lift the blockade immediately and fully.
We are now facing a historic juncture in the process of the settlement of the question of Palestine, for everyone has realized that the Arab countries will not accept the peace that Israel wants to impose as it pleases and outside international legitimacy. Lasting, acceptable and guaranteed peace is one that guarantees the rights of the Palestinian people, especially the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
For reasons some of which we can understand and some of which we fail to understand, this first decade of the twenty-first century has been blindly attacked by what has come to be known as the war on terrorism. Thus, the beginning of a new century has slipped into a predicament that encumbered it and caused distortions and damages, some if not all of which could have been avoided.
We recognize the existence of certain practices that certainly fall within the purview of terrorism, but in this regard we emphasize two issues:
First, we disagree with the attribution of this so-called terrorism to the Islamic religion, because this – in addition to being incorrect – is a historical injustice that is refuted by evidence from recent history. In the twentieth century, including the second half thereof, gratuitous violent actions occurred in the United States of America, Europe and Asia, but nobody said that this terrorism was American, European or Asian. Rather, this violence was attributed to its underlying political, economic, social and even ideological causes, without attributing it to a particular religion, country or idea.
But what we have seen and suffered from in the first decade of this century and which was called “the war on terror”, was a phenomenon foreign to international politics. It has plunged us into a kind of war with no limits, nor end, nor logic, nor legal or moral conditions. Some of this is still happening and although we note that the current United States administration has discontinued the use of the term “war on terror”, we are still looking forward to clearer and bolder initiatives.
The other issue that we would like to emphasize is that we believe that even as the phenomenon of terrorism exists, it should not be treated by waging wars. This treatment has not achieved security, peace or prosperity. To the contrary, it has spread destruction everywhere, deprived millions of people from their livelihoods, spread fear, and caused the killing and displacing of millions as well as economic and financial crises that shook the stability of the world and undermined the efforts made in dialogue among cultures.
I do not want to take much of your time, but we feel that the situation in which we ended up after the beginnings of this intriguing century and its first decade, should not be allowed to continue and its ramifications should not be left to deteriorate unchecked. What we fear is for the war on terrorism to turn into commercial transactions, financial contracts and armies of mercenaries who kill outside of any international and human legitimacy. These are all very dangerous things.
In this first decade, we faced major challenges. We should ensure that war is not the way to deal with them. Rather, we should come to terms with ourselves, with this era and with its concomitant progress to turn the new decade and the decades that follow into an era in which major challenges are addressed with more in-depth understanding and knowledge.
Proceeding from our belief that dialogue is the most effective way to resolve conflicts, we have set out to seek a resolution to several political crises in our region by promoting dialogue between the concerned parties, whether in Lebanon or Yemen or the Horn of Africa or the Sudan.
At the national level in the State of Qatar, we pursue human-centered development policies based on a holistic approach in dealing with human development. We have in mind the goals of modernization, reform and development in order to build a modern constitutional state of institutions based on law that guarantees for citizens their freedoms, rights and responsibilities. We have made concrete steps in enhancing our development capacity, including our health, educational and cultural institutions, which we hope will reach international standards, as well as enhancing national industrial enterprises to exploit natural resources in our country.
God has granted us with an abundance of hydrocarbon fuel reserves in our country. We have strived to make the best use of this wealth and employ its revenues in service of Qatari citizens, and to improve our various human development indicators. Because we, like other inhabitants of our planet Earth, are keen on addressing the impacts of climate change, our interest in clean energy, particularly natural gas, is on our list of priorities. And to contribute to the reduction of carbon emissions, we have developed policies that aim to benefit from clean and renewable energy sources.
Through our approach, we hope to contribute, nationally, regionally and internationally, to the establishment of peace and security, as well as the stability and development that come with them. Thus, we hope to play our part of the collective responsibility as expressed in the Charter for the common good.
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