Official spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry H E Lulwah Rashid Al Khater at the talk show.
H E Lulwah Rashid Al Khater, official spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry said that Qatar’s diplomacy was based on truth, credibility and rationality because it has always relied on facts and not on fabrications.
“If we compare the diplomacy of Qatar with siege countries’ diplomacy, we will find that the siege countries have politicised all fields which have no relation to politics like art, sport, culture or religion. If we look towards Qatar, it never uses economic matters for political purposes, it used politics only in political channels,” Al Khater added while talking on a Qatar TV talk show “The Truth” recently.
On the occasion of 200 days of the siege, TV talk show held open-to-public programme at Katara which was hosted by a number of media persons, university professors, writers and intellectuals. The TV programme dealt with four main issues like: Qatar and its stable diplomacy, extensive international relations developed by Qatar during the crisis, the image of national cohesion as a source of strength for Qatar, and Qatari media - professionalism and ethics.
Dr. Khalid bin Mubarak Al Shafi, Editor-in-Chief of The Peninsula, asking question on a Qatar TV talk show “The Truth” recently.
Regarding the international relations and how siege countries and Qatar dealt with other countries, Al Khater said: “We were surprised that a number of countries which are far away from Qatar cut their ties with Qatar while they had no relation with the crisis. Then we noticed that extreme pressure was exerted on those countries.”
About Qatar’s international relations and how the country dealt with other countries, she gave example of Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani’s current visit which included a number of West African countries. She said that Qatar was having relations with countries of the world with respect.
Al Khater also clarified that the kind of discourse the siege countries were presenting against Qatar was not consistent.
Giving an example, she said that some officials of the siege countries while speaking to foreign media in a foreign language were focusing on specific issues such as the issue of terrorism and did not mention the issue of Iran or others. “But when they talk to their citizens, they focus on the issue of Iran. For Qatar, the discourse is stable and not changed by change of place and time.”
Replying question from Dr. Khalid bin Mubarak Al Shafi, Editor-in-Chief of The Peninsula, about on what foundations Qatar had built its diplomatic successes, Al Khater said: “We built our success firstly on our faith on our just position on the issue. Also on the strong will that we have; and due to efforts made by the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani during the first days of the siege when he was visiting sometimes two countries in one day to explain Qatar’s viewpoint about the crisis.”
For their parts, others guests stressed that it was first time that a number of countries had cut ties with a country based on fabricated news and hacking of news agency though that Qatar had categorically said that it was fake.
They also confirmed that the international relations which were made by Father Emir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani relied on not giving up country’s sovereignty and also to maintain the GCC.
