The
sixth Doha Forum for Policies and Strategies has stressed the
importance for major powers to exert their influence in the region and
put pressure on the siege countries to end the ongoing Gulf crisis that
has harmed the interests of all, and ensure the unity of the Gulf
Co-operation Council (GCC), which is “collapsing under the influence of
the continuation of the crisis and its painful social and humanitarian
consequences”.
The forum emphasised in its final statement, which was
read out by the director of the Directorate of International Studies
and chairman of the Forum’s Preparation Committee, Brigadier (pilot)
Rashid Hamad al-Naimi, the need to pay attention to changes in the map
of political and economic relations between the Gulf states and their
reflections on the map of regional and international alliances in the
Middle East, especially with the strategic equations changing.
The
statement called on the educated elite in the Gulf countries to play a
positive role in preventing the negative impact of the Gulf crisis on
popular mentality and to protect communication between relatives.
In
another context, the statement stressed the need to preserve the legal
and religious status of Jerusalem and to confront attempts to its
Judaisation as well as ending any differences that would distract
efforts and the need to support the besieged Palestinian people.
It
also called on the international community to shoulder its
responsibilities to end the painful and escalating conflicts in the
Middle East, stressing that the resulting damage would not exclude
anyone from their cross-border threat and the collective action they
required.
The statement considered political and cultural elites and
research centres responsible for the social analysis of conflicts and
finding ways to restore the values of coexistence between different
peoples in areas of civil conflict.
It pointed to the need to pay
attention to the changes taking place in the economic policies of some
countries, which represent a decline and a challenge to global economic
policies and freedom of trade and globalisation.
The statement said
military institutions must respond to the new challenges of regular
armies such as urban wars, militia fighting, drone wars and cyber
warfare. It stressed the urgent need to develop new technologies and the
establishment of specialised departments in the security and military
institutions to deal with so-called directed electronic armies, which
has become a danger to communities, especially young people.
At the
end of the forum, Commander of the Centre for Strategic Studies at the
Ministry of Defence, Major General Dr Hamad Mohamed al-Marri, praised
the positive contributions of the forum participants. These included
presenting ideas, analyses and discussions, which adequately and
satisfactorily covered most of the questions that were on everyone’s
minds.
He noted that the forum was an ideal platform from which
participants made valuable discussions, rich in analysis and futuristic
vision on the issues raised through the event’s various sessions. He
added that the participation of representatives of important research
centres and institutions in the area of policy making and analysis was a
great enrichment for the sixth edition of the forum.
Dr al-Marri
expressed hope that the areas of co-operation between Qatar and the
countries participating in the forum would be extended to other levels,
especially as Qatar believed in the importance of integration and
co-operation in the field of scientific research in general and
strategic studies in particular.
The forum was held under the
patronage of HE the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for
Defence Affairs Dr Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah with the theme “The
Middle East: Reality and Challenges”.
