Qatar will continue to support Palestinian people: Deputy PM
DEPUTY Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs HE Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has affirmed that Qatar will continue to support the brotherly Palestinian people. He said Qatar has contributed more than $1.2 billion in the past eight years in support to the Palestinian people.
In a speech during the virtual ministerial meeting of the contact committee devoted to coordinating international assistance to the Palestinian people on Tuesday, the FM said, “Qatar has recently contributed more than $150 million in support to the Palestinian people, part of which has been allocated to deal with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.”
“We believe that this meeting comes at a very important time, as our Palestinian brothers suffer economically, socially and security wise as a result of the illegal occupation, in addition to the COVID-19 crisis,” he said.
“We want to highlight here the importance of continuing the support to the Palestinian people during this crisis, which we believe represents a major challenge for all of us in the world,” the FM said, adding that this challenge has become more difficult for the Palestinians because of the measures taken by the Israeli occupation. He pointed to the failure of the international community during the past 70 years to find a just solution.
“We are witnessing an additional burden with the measures taken by the Israelis, and we believe that this will cause a deterioration of the security situation and can get things out of control and I think that the whole world views these developments with great concern.”
The FM said, “We in Qatar reject any attempt to annex the occupied Palestinian territories, and we expect logistical challenges that will arise, especially with what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank.”
He warned that this would cause delays in the projects of donor countries in those areas.
Israel’s attempts to forcibly annex the occupied territories would dash any hopes about a just peace process, he added.
He said the Arab countries took a courageous step in 2002 by adopting the Arab peace initiative, which stipulated building relations between Israel and the Arab countries in exchange for withdrawal from the lands of 1967, the return of refugees and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
He said there have been no negotiations since 2014 between the Israelis and the Palestinians. “We need to see a serious step towards this and a serious position on this by international community.”