TV grab of former prime minister and foreign minister of Qatar H E Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor Al Thani speaking on Qatar TV talk show “The Truth” last night.
Former prime minister and foreign minister of Qatar H E Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor Al Thani said the siege countries were planning to create a dispute with Qatar and they hid this intention and hacking of QNA was just a pretext for imposing blockade.
“Hacking of the Qatar News Agency was just a pretext for these countries to impose blockade and there was no need for hacking because everything was pre-planned,” said Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim while talking on a Qatar TV talk show “The Truth” last night.
“The difference between the current dispute and earlier ones between Qatar and the blockade countries is that earlier whatever the dispute was, there was some respect and they did not abuse leaders and we didn’t reach to this level. We usually find solutions to our problems and disputes,” Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim added.
The UAE’s criticism of Qatar is strange. If it is because of Qatar’s success in some fields, then it should be the source of motivation for them as UAE is also a source of motivation for us in some projects. Instead of giving chance to others to laugh at us, we should help each other, he noted.
Qatar has many times given up many of its issues for in support of interest of Arab unity, while they have conspired against on us.
Regarding Al Jazeera Channel, he said that Al Jazeera was established to raise the voice of Arab citizens and after three years of its establishing we found many problems from Arab countries were highligthed. But for them it was a noise. The channel helped a lot of people to understand the truth.
He also said that he was among those who participated in establishing Al Jazeera based on directions of the Father Emir during that time but after two or three years he regretted because it created many problems because there are some Arab countries which were not used to such freedom of expression.
Replying to a question about the voices and reports which say that Qatar must give up its sovereignty for Saudi Arabia, he said that “In this century and after establishing the United Nation, no country is small or big, all are equal now. The flags of all the countries are equal at the United Nation, and the international law guarantee the rule of law”.
It was possible earlier to sacrifice their sovereignity to ensure their protection but today there are international laws which ensure peaceful coexistence of small and big countries together.
We need intellectual renaissance to solve our disputes because one country can’t impose its opinion on others. Saudi Arabia is a big country and very important for GCC region. The dealing between the two countries is different than the dealing between two individuals because when it is matter between two nations, than the interests of many people are at stake.
When Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani came to power he said that he wanted strong relations with Saudi Arabia and other countries. The countries should focus on positive relations and should ignore the past differences.
Disputes must be discussed in the framework of the GCC and any disputes can be solved like other disputes solved in the past.
If these countries have some new policies then they can discusses it with Qatar. There is possibility of Qatar agreeing with them with some minor changes. But this should be based on clear vision and priniciples.
He also talked about some historical disputes between Qatar, Bahrain, UAE and Saudi Arabia and said that all the disputes were resolved because of the wise leadership.
About the relation of some countries with Israel, he said “I don’t blame any country to create relation with Israel but they should not give up Arab issues,” he said.
Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani regretted that he did not see any role for the Gulf leaders in the current Gulf crisis.
“We did not see any initiative by the GCC officials in this crisis,” he said. “I wish I could see them in this crisis even if they considered Qatar responsible. They even did not call for a meeting to discuss the crisis”.
“We can not impose views by force, especially as we look forward to attracting investors, changing our educational or health system, creating jobs, creating a better life for our people and raising the income of the individual in the GCC,” he added.
“There were mistakes made by all GCC countries regarding the use of wealth in the past, but there are countries that changed this and created a new environment respecting law and raised their incomes. So why we should talk about big and small countries. We must act as equal states”.
“We know that Saudi Arabia is the great sister country, and it has respect and status. I always say that Saudi Arabia is the backbone of the GCC, but we should settle our differences on a clear basis.”
