German Minister of Defence Ursula von der Leyen has confirmed that her country is aware of the size and dimensions of the threats that have besieged the Middle East region, pointing out that Berlin is working with its allies to preserve this "important region", and restore security, and ensure the protection of its allies, "especially the State of Qatar, which is making great efforts within the ranks of the alliance of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) to combat terrorism and eliminate it completely."
In remarks to a local Arabic newspaper published Friday, the German minister said: "We know the details, the reasons and the objectives of the crisis of the State of Qatar, the important member of the Nato alliance, recently, as is known to most of the leaders participating in the Nato summit in Brussels, as mediators intertwined in the crisis of the siege on this country," adding that her country, Britain, Spain and France have presented important research papers to the leaders of the (Nato) meeting on cybersecurity and the consequences of crimes and threats and military tampering the internal security of states.
She noted Qatar's participation in the meeting, as Qatar, the participating member of Nato, recently experienced direct threat to its internal security in order to undermine its sovereignty and interference in its affairs, "asserting that Nato was working seriously that this experience would not be repeated in the future to ensure that none of the allied countries like Qatar is exposed to this situation."
The German minister also pointed out that Qatar "was subjected to a conspiracy by some neighbours to undermine its security and the security of its citizens," and called for "full involvement of Doha in the efforts of the International Coalition to confront extremist organisations in Southwest Asia."
"Qatar has outstanding military capabilities and diverse expertise that we have experienced during the joint exercises between the German and Qatari forces and through the Qatari participants within the International Coalition forces to eliminate terrorism," she said, adding that the Qatari forces "have the ability to deal with the difficult geographical nature in a number of Asian regions, and the Qatari military leadership has a distinct vision in the defence, manoeuvre and attack in the desert and in the mountainous areas, as well as possessing distinct skills in the pursuit and tracking in such circumstances, that is why Nato chose Qatar, and was keen to give it a distinguished membership in the coalition."
"The International Coalition is considering consolidating its military, defence and weapons relations further with Doha to strengthen its ranks and increase its skills and expertise," said the minister.
The Qatari forces are the only Arab forces that are very much in tune with the various forces that make up it, especially Turkish, French, German and American, she said, noting that "these trends were taken on the basis that Qatar has been a key partner for more than three years on many fronts, where its forces have important expertise to make it an effective member of the team tasked with clearing Southwest Asia from terrorism."
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