QNA/New Delhi
HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani emphasised that the depth of the historical ties with India are not confined to gas, but are far beyond that.
In an interview with (The Times of India), HH the Emir said that Qatar plans to invest within an open investment policy in all fields, referring to his conversation with the Indian government that will address the current situation in the region in light of governments changing and the existence of problems with terrorist movements.
With 7mn Indians living in the region, around 631,000 of them are working in Qatar from labourers to doctors and engineers, “I know it’s important for the Indian government to understand what we feel and what is going on,” HH the Emir said.
“Though the Gulf countries are stable, we are very close to the unrest in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. The longer that continues, we know that it will affect our region. We have to find solutions. I think peaceful political solutions are the only ideal way out of it,” he added.
In the case of Syria, HH the Emir said that a peaceful solution is the only way to get out of this crisis, but without Bashar al-Assad who has been facing his own people with weapons, killing his own people.
HH the Emir explained that in the early days of the uprising, the Syrian people did not want to topple the regime, but they wanted reform and dignity. And what happened? He started killing his own people and confronting them with chemical weapons and bombs.
“I totally disagree with the approach that sees only terrorist movements versus the regime. There are millions of people in between. Some of those terrorist movements grew because of the killing environment in Syria,” HH the Emir expressed.
He pointed to the importance of hearing from everybody regarding the terrorist movements in the region, not only from the West.
“When the Arab Spring started, you didn’t hear about terrorist movements. There was a lot of hope for freedom, for dignity, for equality,” HH the Emir said, adding “But things started to get bloody in Syria and other countries, now we see other terrorist groups are growing.”
“We have to identify the real reason for these terrorist movements. We have had terrorist movements earlier. It has nothing to do with religion, because every religion has had its own terrorists and extremists. A decade ago everybody was fighting terrorism, another terrorist group. They were successful to some degree,” he noted.
“Then other terrorist groups came, stronger, bloodier, more brutal. We have to understand the main reason behind these. I believe the only way out is to have a political process, freedom for people’s participation in their future,” HH the Emir said.
In response to a question related to media reports about Qatar’s alleged involvement in the financing of terrorist groups, HH Sheikh Tamim said: “People have been talking a lot about Qatar and spreading wrong rumours, but if you think about terrorist finance it can happen in all countries, including Western countries.”
HH the Emir stressed that in Qatar there are laws preventing helping terrorist movements and that anybody who does this should be punished.
“People don’t understand that sometimes people do it, not intentionally to support terrorism, they are helping their brothers in Syria and Iraq, but sometimes the money goes to the wrong people, so it is very difficult for some of the people to see who is really financing the terrorist,” HH the Emir added.
Regarding Syria and Iraq, HH the Emir said that most of the weapons there are from the west, noting that he don’t know who is funding, but sometimes it’s difficult to prevent that falls in the wrong hands.
Answering a question about Qatar’s preparation for the World Cup, especially a lot of Indians would travel to watch the games, HH the Emir said: “We are expecting tens of thousands of Indians for the World Cup. We are a third world country, we are a Middle Eastern country and we’re a Muslim country. You have people against those three things, and we’re very small country, but the way we won the bid, is because we’ve been representing the Arab countries and we mean it. It is something that the whole region is looking forward to. All around the region people are looking forward to this World Cup. Any country that hosts a big event might face bad publicity, bad press coverage.
“Many of it is wrong, but some of it is right. This is why we are very serious, when we talk about the labour. We’re very serious with the labour law, we’ve been very strict with employers. Many big countries have been blacklisted because they are not going according to the law. We are changing the laws and things are becoming much and much better now.”
About air-conditioned stadiums, HH the Emir of Qatar explained that although the date was changed to winter, “we’re still going to do the air-conditioned stadiums because we need it for our league and future competitions.”
HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani speaking in New Delhi.
