Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani during an interview with German newspaper 'The Frankfurter Allgemeine'.
Doha: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has said that people “cannot accept a small country from the Middle East” hosting the World Cup and those criticising are “arrogant”.
In an interview with Sky News published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on its website, the Deputy Prime Minister described negative media coverage of the upcoming tournament as “misinformation”.
“Preaching from a distance is not a solution,” he said. “Calling to boycott the World Cup, or those who are not coming to the World Cup, it’s their decision at the end of the day, but why deprive the people and the public from attending and enjoying the World Cup.”
Asked about the competing nations’ criticism of the hosts, he replied: “What kind of message are they sending to their own public?
“What about their own problems within their countries, which they are turning a blind eye? Honestly, not me or the Qatari people only, but there’s a lot of people from around the world who are just seeing this as a sense of arrogance.
“A sense of people who cannot accept a small country from the Middle East has won the bid to host the World Cup.”
Asked about worker mortalities and the compensation fund that has been set up for their families, he said it had been “working very effectively in the couple of years”. “Already around $350m has been dispersed last years for the workers and this proven to be effective,” he said.
“If there are any issues or gaps with the execution of the current fund they should come and talk to us to improve it not to duplicate,” he added.
Meanwhile, in an interview with the German newspaper “The Frankfurter Allgemeine”, the Deputy Prime Minister said Qatar has always been open to constructive criticism of its foreign labour laws or its system.
“We have opened our doors to non-governmental organizations and international human rights organizations and have engaged constructively with their work and their demands. But when a government that supposedly cooperates with us and knows about all developments and reforms makes statements based on misinformation and creates a false image, we cannot accept that,” he said.
“On the one side, the German population is misinformed by government politicians; on the other, the government has no problem with us when it comes to energy partnerships or investments,” media outlets quoted him saying in the interview. “We are annoyed by the double standards.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs shared excerpts from his interview on its Twitter yesterday.
The Deputy Prime Minister said: “For the first time in history, a World Cup is taking place in a small Arab country, in a region that has always been the subject of crises and violence. Now comes a moment when all of us, as Arabs, as people in the Middle East, can show that we are able to come together and celebrate such an event with the world.
“We have said from day one that this should be a World Cup for all Arabs. And we believe that this will also make other countries in our region believe that one day they will be able to host major events like this. This will change the sentiments and the atmosphere in the region.”
He added: “We want to have good relations with everyone in the East and in the West. The West has been our traditional ally for four decades, and we have worked very closely with the West. We have helped our partners there, they have helped us. And that’s what partnerships in the East are all about. We have done a lot of business, a lot of trade, also in terms of energy supply. We don’t want to be drawn into this polarization that is unfortunately going on. The Europeans and the West have to understand that. Friendship is not a one-way street. That is what we expect and demand from everyone.”
He noted that it seems difficult for some to accept that a small country, a small Arab country, should be allowed to host the soccer World Cup. “Racist clichés also keep cropping up. But that is not the case everywhere for a long time. There are fewer than ten countries from which such sharp criticism comes. The rest of the world is happy for us. 97 percent of the tickets have already been sold. That is a clear sign.”
