HH the Emir of Qatar Participates in UN Security Council Open Debate

New York, September 25 (QNA) - HH the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani participated Wednesday in the open debate meeting of the UN Security Council on the threats to international peace and security posed by foreign terrorist fighters. The summit-level meeting, held at UN headquarters in New York, was chaired by US President Barack Obama along with a number of Heads of State and Governments. HH the Emir delivered a speech in which he extended thanks to President Obama for convening this important meeting. HH the expressed hope that this would enhance the international cooperation and coordination and the collective effort to address the phenomenon of foreign terrorist fighters in particular, and other manifestations of international terrorism. HH the Emir said that there is an agreement in the international community that terrorism is a grave danger, stressing the need to address this phenomenon as a priority, adding that peoples of our region have suffered unfortunately from terrorism, including the targeting of innocent civilians and civilian institutions and spreading terror to reach political objectives. HH the Emir referred in his speech at the UN General Assembly session that there is no civilisation in the modern era that has not known terrorism whether it is from left-wing, right-wing or religious parties, adding that it is fatal error to link this type of political violence with specific culture, religion or nationality. There is no doubt that cross-border terrorism and the use of means of communication and modern technology contribute to the transmission of this scourge, which makes it impossible to address it without concrete cooperation of countries to face it, HH the Emir noted. "We in Qatar consider ourselves part of the international solidarity in the face of terrorism and we are committed to addressing it at the national level, as well as at the international level through the interaction with international efforts to combat it," HH the Emir said in his speech in the open debate meeting of the UN Security Council on the threats to international peace and security posed by foreign terrorist fighters. The security response is inevitable, and even the military emergency, because of the imminent danger posed by terrorist groups that recruit and transfer fighters across international borders, HH the Emir said, adding, but the immediate and urgent alert should not make us overlook the circumstances of its inception, causes and motives. Terrorism is supposed to be phenomenal, but the spread of terrorist movements to the degree of taking control over territories and population in a country is only possible in the absence and failure of the state and the security vacuum resulting from that, or when the state turns into a suppression and killing tool that leave no outlet for speech and dialogue for civil political forces and does not give space for gradual peaceful reform and for the civil revolution, HH the Emir stressed, noting there are regimes that have become an organized comprehensive terrorism waging genocide wars against its own people. To make the efforts that are aimed to eradicate terrorism to bear fruit, the state must return to its role as a collective framework that ensures the security and stability without becoming only an oppression tool, HH said. HH the Emir pointed out that it is necessary to fight terrorism and not wait to have more people to be killed, but it cannot be defeated without recruiting the affected communities themselves against it, adding that communities should not be given the choice between terrorism and bloody tyranny, as in Syria, or between terrorism and revenge sectarian exclusion as was the case in Iraq. In the context of the fight against terrorism, HH the Emir reminded that previous experience showed that military action alone is not a way to solve all the problems, and it must come within the context of political solutions that open horizons for a better future, adding that violence begets violence if it is not a part of a comprehensive political solution. The policy is deeply popular if it gains credibility and the position towards targeting civilians must be the same if it done by an authoritarian state, occupation state or a terrorist organization, HH the Emir said. The impression that the international community shows inability to cope with the policy of the killing of hundreds of thousands of civilians shall not be prevailed, HH added. Countering terrorism is not a carte blanche to take any action without the obligation of the international law, human rights and fundamental freedoms, and it is not permissible to punish innocent civilians of terrorism and once again when they fight against terrorism, HH the Emir said. In conclusion, HH the Emir reaffirmed support for all efforts based on international consensus to put an end to the phenomenon of foreign terrorist fighters and terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and regardless of its justifications. (QNA)