Prime Minister to UN Security Council: Israeli Treacherous Attack on Qatar Carried Out by Extremist Leadership Far Removed from Behavior of Civilized Countries That Believe in Peace
New York, September 12 (QNA) - HE Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani took part today in an emergency UN Security Council session on developments in the Middle-East, convened in response to the Israeli attack on Qatar.
The session was requested by Algeria, Somalia, Pakistan, France, and the United Kingdom.
In his remarks, HE the Prime Minister thanked the Council presidency and member states for their swift response to Qatar’s request for the emergency meeting, particularly Algeria, Somalia, Pakistan, France, and the United Kingdom, which formally submitted the request on the State of Qatar’s behalf. He also expressed appreciation for the Council’s adoption of a press statement and for the solidarity shown by member states in condemning the Israeli strike on Doha on Sep. 9. His Excellency noted that the statement recognized the attack as having taken place on the territory of a key mediator and reaffirmed support for Qatar’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in line with the UN Charter.
Addressing the Council, the Prime Minister described the attack as an extremely dangerous escalation that directly threatens regional peace and security and therefore falls squarely within the Council’s mandate. His Excellency said that at 3:46 pm on Sep. 9 an Israeli airstrike targeted a state-designated residential complex used to house negotiating delegations. The compound was known to all parties involved in the mediation process, and even to the media and diplomats who had met Hamas delegation members there, as the residence of Hamas negotiators and their families.
His Excellency reported that after Qatari security services completed forensic procedures and verified identities, it was confirmed that the strike caused multiple casualties, including the death of Qatari national Lance Corporal Badr Saad Mohammed Al Humaidi Al Dosari, aged 22, who was killed in the line of duty. Several civilians and members of the Qatari Internal Security Force assigned to protect the compound were also injured, with wounds ranging from moderate to severe. All are receiving medical care, while investigations and efforts to identify the missing continue.
His Excellency added that the attack terrorized civilians, including children, in a residential neighborhood filled with schools, nurseries, and diplomatic missions.
HE the Prime Minister said the incident was a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of a full UN member state, carried out by an extremist leadership far removed from the behavior of civilized nations committed to peace. His Excellency warned that violating the sovereignty of a country actively working to broker a ceasefire and save lives places the entire international system to a serious test. His Excellency accused Israel’s leadership of crossing all limits set by international law, diplomatic norms, and even basic human ethics, creating a situation in which its next moves are impossible to predict.
His Excellency questioned how Israeli officials could visit the State of Qatar for negotiations while their leadership planned and then executed an airstrike on the very site of the talks only days later. His Excellency asked whether the world had ever witnessed a state attacking the mediator’s territory during an active negotiation and attempting to kill members of the opposing delegation in their meeting location, only for the Israeli prime minister to later issue sham justifications and misleading comparisons in an attempt to legitimize an act condemned worldwide.
HE the Prime Minister said that the Israeli Prime Minister should have recalled the State of Qatar’s previous mediation efforts, recalling the example of the Taliban political office in Doha, which served as a channel for engagement with the world and ultimately produced the peace agreement that ended decades of war in Afghanistan.
His Excellency noted that the United States never targeted Taliban negotiators, but instead worked with the State of Qatar, under President Donald Trump’s administration, to help end in 2020 the longest war in US history. His Excellency stressed that this was the constructive approach that Israel’s prime minister is now seeking to undermine with cheap and emotional pretexts.
HE Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani addressed the UN Security Council in an emergency session on developments in the Middle-East, and stressed that the ongoing violations of international law and its disregard for basic norms of human conduct reveal only one conclusion, and that is that the current Israeli leadership is intoxicated by power and arrogance because it believes it can act with complete impunity.
He pointed out that, in addition to the genocide in Gaza and the unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe there which the international community has failed to deter, the Israeli destructive hand was now reaching sovereign states and destabilizing the region without accountability. His Excellency added that the arrogance had reached the point where they openly spoke to their domestic audiences about reshaping the region by force, driven by messianic motives and extremist ideology, assuming that no one beyond their own supporters was listening. He stressed that the nations and peoples of the region would never accept such behavior or the rhetoric that accompanies it.
HE the Prime Minister reaffirmed the State of Qatar’s full belief in mediation and the peaceful resolution of conflicts, noting that this role enjoys broad regional and international recognition. His Excellency highlighted that the State of Qatar’s mediation, carried out in partnership with Egypt and the United States, had already produced tangible results, including the release of 148 Israeli and foreign hostages, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, and the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza. His Excellency added that despite Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon, these achievements served as a rare glimmer of hope in a bloody conflict.
His Excellency said that the attack on Qatari soil while mediation was underway clearly revealed the premeditated Israeli intent to derail any peace effort and prolong the suffering of the Palestinian people, whose ordeal defies description. He added that the strike showed that the extremists now governing Israel do not care about the lives of hostages or their release, and that it was impossible to explain the timing and location of the attack, which targeted a meeting convened to discuss the latest US ceasefire proposal while the Hamas negotiating delegation was gathered to prepare its response.
HE the Prime Minister called on the UN Security Council to shoulder its historic responsibility, warning that silence in the face of such law-of-the-jungle tactics and the targeting of a sovereign state in broad daylight undermines the foundations of international order and threatens the future of any peace process in the region. His Excellency stressed that these attacks are not aimed at the State of Qatar alone but represent a direct threat to every state working for peace, eroding confidence in the UN system itself.
His Excellency affirmed that under the leadership of HH the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the State of Qatar will continue its humanitarian and diplomatic role wherever it offers a path to saving lives, but will not tolerate any infringement on its sovereignty or security and reserves its legitimate right to respond in accordance with international law. He emphasized that Qatar is a nation of peace, not war, and has chosen peace as a guiding principle despite the provocations of those who seek conflict and destruction.
HE the Prime Minister concluded by reminding the Council that the attack on Qatar was also an assault on all diplomatic efforts aimed at peaceful solutions. His Excellency stressed that the only path to peace lies through negotiations, beginning with a ceasefire, the release of all hostages and prisoners, and the unconditional entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza and the lifting of the blockade. Speaking on behalf of peace advocates everywhere, His Excellency expressed cautious optimism, urging the international community not to yield to the arrogance of extremists and to continue striving for a lasting peace based on a two-state solution, establishing an independent and fully sovereign Palestinian state on its national territory in accordance with international legitimacy, where two states and two peoples can coexist in peace. (QNA)
