Dr. Khalid bin Mubarak Al-Shafi, Editor-in-Chief of The Peninsula.
Dr. Khalid bin Mubarak Al-Shafi, Editor-in-Chief of The Peninsula, has said that the speech of the Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani at the opening of the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly was comprehensive covering all issues from local to the plight of Rohingya Muslims.
“In the speech, H H the Emir talked about immediate help of Rohingya Muslims and he also talked about Libya and Syria issues. It was not the first time that the Emir gave priority to international and local issues when he asked for dialogue to solve the crisis. Emir also has appreciated Qataris and expats and their stand in the face of the siege and we are actually very proud of him as a leader,” Dr. Al-Shafi said while talking on a Qatar TV talk show “The Truth” last night.
The talk show focused on the local and international response on the speech of the Emir and Qatar’s position on dialogue. “The siege countries’ plan has been exposed to all and sundry and that is why they didn’t attend UNGA session because they could not convince the world on violating human rights. A number of US newspapers have mentioned that the leaders of the siege countries didn’t attend the session where all world leaders were present,” Dr. Al-Shafi observed.
“H H the Emir said in his speech that those countries didn’t provide any evidence to back their allegations and will not provide because the beginning of the problem was from hacking of the QNA and that was for political goals,” Dr. Al-Shafi added.
Commenting on the meeting of the Emir with US President, he said that the meeting was a friendly meeting and the US president said that the American and Qatari relationships are very strong and Qatar was the first country after Riyadh summit to sign an agreement for fighting terrorism with the US.
Dr. Al-Shafi said that the Emir in his speech has also mentioned that “the Qatar’s economy is very strong and siege didn’t affect it,” adding that Saudi Arabia has lost its position in the Arab world as a leader as most of the decisions on the crisis were being made by the UAE.
“The siege countries have failed to distort the Qatari reputation and that is why they hired some buses in New York carrying screens saying that Qatar supports terrorism,” Dr. Al-Shafi added.
For her part, Dr, Ilham Badr, a journalist said that the speech of Emir was coincided with UN principles, respecting countries sovereignty and respecting human rights.
“The siege didn’t bar the Emir to talk about the Rohingyas’ sufferings and also let the UN listen to the Qatar’s voice on the unjust blockade”.
She also said that there was nothing to malign Qatar otherwise the siege countries wouldn’t hacked Qatar News Agency to make the ground to defame Qatar. “These countries can’t attend the UNGA session because they are violating human rights and no one will listen to them. They have failed politically, ethically and economically,” she noted.
On importance of Kuwaiti mediation, she said that Kuwait knows more about the Gulf relations than other countries, and the siege countries misunderstood Trump’s statements about the crisis.
“There is a very dangerous sign which is that while Trump was taking about terrorism the camera was on the Saudi Foreign Minister and didn’t went for example to Iran delegations. The problem of the crisis is that Saudi Arabia always waiting for the UAE to approve its decisions,” she noted.
