SHEIKH TAMIM BIN HAMAD AL THANI, Amir of Qatar, highlighted the situation in Gaza, stating that the blatant aggression against the Palestinian people in the Strip is “the most barbaric and heinous and extensive in breaching human values, international charters and norms”.  Calling the aggression “a crime of genocide”, he warned against the use of the most sophisticated weapons against a people besieged in a detention camp where there is no escape from the barrage of aerial bombing.  One year into the war, “it is no longer tenable to talk about Israel’s right to defend itself” without being complicit in justifying the crime.  This occupation has taken the form of an apartheid system in the twenty-first century.  The end of the occupation, with the Palestinian people exercising their right to self-determination, is “neither a favour nor a gift from anyone”, he emphasized.

Noting that the Security Council has failed to implement its ceasefire resolution on Gaza, he said the organ also refrained from granting Palestine full UN membership, despite the adoption in May of a General Assembly resolution supporting a request for such status.  The State of Palestine’s full UN membership neither establishes its sovereignty nor ends the occupation but at least sends a message to the far-right Government involved in challenging its international legitimacy.  Dismissing such a step as harming the peace process is simply “eyewash”, he said.  Qatar has opted to undertake mediation efforts to stop the aggression on Gaza and secure the release of prisoners and detainees.  Mediation amid a fierce war faced complex circumstances, he said, noting that one party would not hesitate to assassinate counterpart political leaders, as witnessed in the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas political leader and the first elected Palestinian prime minister.

The mediation efforts of Qatar, Egypt and the United States culminated in a humanitarian agreement in November 2023, he said, with a brief ceasefire in Gaza, the release of 240 Palestinian prisoners and 109 detainees in Gaza, and an increased flow of relief shipments. “We will continue to exert efforts” until reaching a permanent ceasefire and until the Palestinian people obtain all their legitimate rights, foremost of which is “their independent State with East Jerusalem as its capital on the 1967 borders”.  Israel is currently waging a war on Lebanon, and “no one knows to what extent this war could escalate”, he warned.  In Yemen, his country looks forward to preserving the 2022 truce and proceeding towards a comprehensive ceasefire.

Qatar has been keen on ending the crisis in Syria under the Geneva Declaration and Security Council resolution 2254 (2015) in a way that will preserve Syria’s unity, sovereignty and independence and meet the aspirations of the people there.  Doha also calls on all Sudanese warring parties to stop fighting and supports all regional and international efforts to end the crisis in that country.  He also expressed support for the political trajectory in Libya and the implementation of Council resolutions, urging all parties to recourse to dialogue and overcome differences.  The war between the Russian Federation and Ukraine has caused great human suffering, with repercussions on Europe and the world.  Qatar calls on all parties to implement the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations and the rules of international law and seek a peaceful solution, he added.