Qatari emir regrets Arab, international community's failure to stand up for Arab causes

Qatari Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani criticized Tuesday the Arab countries and international community for failure to stand up for Arab causes, particularly the Palestinian cause and the Syrian crisis. "The primary responsibility for the continuation of the Palestinian cause and the suffering of the Palestinians without a solution, lies with the Israeli intransigence ... and the international leniency with this intransigence, which amounts to collusion," Sheikh Tamim said in the opening speech of the 42nd session of the state's Advisory Council. "But we must also blame the Arab inactivity towards Arab causes, especially the Palestine cause and division among the Palestinians, which is a key factor in weakening the Palestinian position and making way for Israel to step up its aggressive policy in light of the Arab and Palestinians preoccupation with their differences." The Amir, who assumed his post only few months ago, stressed that the Palestinian cause remains, the focus of Qatar's foreign policy. "This Arab and Palestinian wound in the body of the nation is still chronic and inflamed. Every day, Israel with its aggressive settlement policy pushes away the prospects of a just solution to the issue." He slammed the Arab and international community's failure to stand up against the Syrian regime that committed crimes against humanity. "The international community has failed to stand up against the regime that committed and is still committing crimes against humanity, and also failed to take binding resolutions to stem the bloodshed, due to use of the veto by some countries in the Security Council." Sheikh Tamim assailed some countries' insistence on holding Geneva II Conference for finding a peaceful solution to the crisis in Syria without a timeframe or bases for it. "Nobody should try to exchange achieving justice for this people who paid the highest prices and wrote an epic of heroism and pride, for unconditional and non-time-bound negotiations that would lead to nothing. "Negotiations should be held to reach a political solution on the basis of the recognition of the fair demands of the Syrian people, and on the basis of a timetable for achieving them." The Amir stressed Qatar's full support for Syrian people who defend their dignity and existence on their land not just to achieve freedom and justice. With regard to Gulf and pan-Arab relations, Sheikh Tamim emphasized that Qatar has always acted to strengthen the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and achieving integration among its States, and bolstering Arab solidarity and developing the system for the joint Arab action, so that the Arabs have a high status and a voice in this world. "During its presidency of the Arab summit, Qatar has worked to reach a common vision on several issues on the Arab arena, and we believe that we have always been supportive of the Arab public opinion and the Arab people's aspirations for justice and dignity," he said. Furthermore, he stated that Qatar's foreign policy has always been based on the principles of peaceful coexistence and cooperation with all countries and peoples, mutual respect, promoting common interests, consolidating international peace and security. On the internal policy, Sheikh Tamim summed up the state vision for development. "We, brothers, could summarize the development goals, including the Qatar Vision 2030, in three words: building the homeland and the citizen, and from which the major tasks assigned to the leadership of the State are derived. "We consider the building of institutions that are based on rational management of resources, professional standards, and benchmarks of productivity and efficiency, and serving the public interest on the one hand, and keenness on the welfare of the citizen, qualifying him for useful productive work, and grooming him to find meaning to his life in the serving his country and his society on the other hand, two-faces of the development process that we aspire to." The Amir highlighted a number of the major economic successes of Qatar in the past year. "Qatar's economy has sustained its accomplishments by achieving the best results as per the vision and strategy worked out for this purpose, despite global economic uncertainty and instability that prevent complete recovery from the successive crises that afflict a number of advanced and emerging economies alike. "The real gross domestic product (GDP) increased by lesser rate in 2012 compared to the previous growth rates. But if we take into account the low growth rate in the oil sector, then we could figure out that achieving this growth rate in the GDP required a growth rate of up to 10 percent in the non- oil sector, and this is not an easy achievement." He added that the government expenditures for the fiscal year 2013-14 is higher than any spending in previous budgets and higher than the spending in the fiscal year 2012-13 by 17 percent. "Qatar has maintained its top rank on global competitiveness and its relatively high indicators in the field of human development. Qatar also has attained the highest Human Development ranking among the Arab Gulf countries in the Human Development Report for 2013 issued by the United Nations Development Program."