Tamim — 76th UNGA address — Al-Ula reconciliation, Iran dialogue, Palestinian centrality (21 September 2021)

Honorable Audience,

The issue of conflicts has kept the United Nations busy and placed many burdens on it since its foundation. Unfortunately, the Middle East region is a source of a large part of these burdens. Hence, Qatar considers contributing to the field of peaceful resolution of conflicts, including putting forward concepts of collective security, as one of its priorities.

We have always been keen to establish an atmosphere of peace, stability and cooperation in the region. As an example, at the Gulf level, our immediate environment, we have repeatedly stressed the importance of the Cooperation Council for the Arab Countries of the Gulf and our commitment to settle any differences through constructive dialogue.

The Al-Ula Declaration, which was issued by the leaders of the GCC last January, came as an embodiment of the principle of resolving differences through dialogue based on common interests and mutual respect. We are confident of consolidating this concordance that has happened between brothers.

On the other hand, we see that there is no solution to the disagreements and differences in viewpoints with Iran except through rational dialogue based on mutual respect. This also applies to the issue of returning to the nuclear agreement with Iran. I do not think that anyone has an alternative to this approach, even those who oppose reverting to the agreement.

Honorable Audience,

This year witnessed numerous Israeli violations in the occupied East Jerusalem, and recurrence of attacks on Islamic and Christian sanctities, especially the Al-Aqsa Mosque during the holy month of Ramadan, and the seizure of Palestinian homes in the context of Judaization and settlement policies. This was followed by a dangerous military escalation in the Gaza Strip, which caused hundreds of casualties among unarmed civilians, and caused aggravation of the already dire humanitarian situation in the Strip.

The international community bears responsibility for achieving a comprehensive and just peaceful settlement of the Palestinian cause by establishing a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, alongside the State of Israel, and ending the occupation of Arab lands, and a just solution to the refugee issue. This is what the international community has agreed upon for decades, yet it has not found its way towards implementation despite the risks posed by this issue if it has remained unresolved.

As a result of this continuous procrastination, there occasionally appear those who believe that the Palestinian cause can be marginalized on the international agenda or can circumvent such a deeply rooted national cause by suggesting ideas such as improving the economic situation of the population under occupation instead of eliminating the occupation.

Recently, the issue of evacuating the residents of the Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan neighborhood, the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque by the settlers and the Palestinian, Arab and international angry popular response came to reaffirm the centrality of the Palestinian cause and that there is no way to circumvent it.

Honorable Audience,

The American decision to withdraw from Afghanistan following negotiations with the Taliban constituted an extremely critical turning point for this country. As you know, Qatar has spared no effort in helping to evacuate thousands of individuals and families of various nationalities during the past weeks. This was our humanitarian duty. But the most important thing I want to refer to is that we were confident that war offers no solution and that there would be dialogue in the end. We had acted on this basis when we hosted the Taliban office when our international partners asked us to open and patronize a direct dialogue between them and Taliban in Doha. This position has been proven correct.