HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani addressing the 69th session of the UN General Assembly yesterday.

QNA

HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani yesterday called on  all countries to help in the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.

Addressing the 69th session of the UN General Assembly,  HH the Emir said that Qatar would “spare no effort to provide assistance for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip”.

He  urged all countries of the world “to be a part of that effort”. 

The Emir said: “The Middle East region has gone through an extremely dangerous phase during the recent war on our Palestinian brothers. There are no guarantees that a similar war would not be waged again.

“In fact, Israel hangs on to its policy of occupation, snubbing the will of the international community by its latest confiscation of lands in the West Bank and its continuous building of settlements in a bid to perpetuate its occupation.”

He said the conscience of mankind had been “deeply shocked” by the aggression on Gaza and targeting of civilians: “babies were killed while in the arms of their mothers, almost half a million Palestinians were displaced and the Gaza Strip was destroyed on a large scale before we even finish the reconstruction of what was destroyed during the previous aggression”. He described it as “a crime against humanity”.

But the arrogance of power, he said, would not overcome the resistance of the Palestinian people. He saluted the “steadfastness of the resistance of the Palestinian people in Gaza in the face of the occupation and in insisting on regaining their legitimate rights”.

Israel, he said, must realise that the security of its people would only be achieved through peace. 

Speaking on the Syrian crisis, he called it  a “major challenge” in the Middle East. 

“This humanitarian disaster is exacerbated and becoming increasingly dangerous in the absence of a clear vision for a solution to the crisis, the continuing acts of murder and destruction, the violations of human rights, the suffering and the displacement of nearly half of the Syrian people. 

“In the light of such situation, it is imperative for the international community to work hard to put an end to the bloodshed and the systematic destruction of Syria by a regime that put its people between a rock and a hard case…. 

“We have already warned that the continuation of the regime’s policy of terrorism, genocide and displacement and the failure to provide support to the Syrian revolution, when it was still a civilian revolution demanding freedom and dignity, would push many Syrians to opt for self-defence. We have also warned the international community, from the outset, that if no action was taken about the situation in Syria, we would be getting to where we are now. 

“When the Syrian people defended themselves with weapons, we advocated supporting them before the regime destroys their country and before extremist organisations are established. No red lines were drawn to limit the action of the Syrian regime. 

“The world remained unfazed even when Syrian children and women were being killed with chemical weapons, and when its populated neighbourhoods were bombed with air-dropped barrels. Eventually, the Syrian people were stuck between terrorism of the regime and terrorism of extremist forces that thrived in the swamp of violence.”

The war of genocide being waged and the deliberate displacement carried out by the regime remained the major crime.

He said that the genocide and the deliberate displacement carried out by the regime, remained the major crime. 

“Faced with this grim reality, the international community needs to provide all humanitarian aid to the Syrian people inside Syria and in places of their refuge. We reiterate the call for the Security Council to promptly shoulder its legal and humanitarian responsibility and support the Syrian people against both dangers posed by the terrorism of the regime and the crimes of genocide it is perpetrating and by the terrorist forces that took advantage of the misery and bitterness and the absence of the state and the international community. The first danger has begotten the second.”

 

 

 

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