HE the Speaker of the Advisory Council Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid al-Mahmoud said Qatar believes in settling disputes peacefully. The wise leadership of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and before him, His Highness the Father Amir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani focused on peaceful relations so that everyone can live together in freedom and dignity, he said.
This came during the speaker’s participation in the conference of Association of Senates, Shura and Equivalent Councils in Africa and the Arab World which began in Rabat, Morocco, yesterday, and focused on the experiences of national reconciliation which led to political stability, social peace and peace-building.
Al-Mahmoud said in compliance with this vision and in line with the human values and the Qatari heritage legacy, Qatar is committed to exerting all possible efforts to achieving security and peace in the region, bringing together parties and achieving reconciliations, since its own stability and security is part of the region’s stability and security. 
The speaker said Doha has become the city of reconciliations and a venue for meetings of warring parties in Sudan, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine, Yemen and Afghanistan, and has achieved many successful settlements due to its credibility, transparency and standing at the same distance from all parties. It also worked on parallel lines to meet relief needs and support early recovery projects, to reconstruct, to push the development process to provide stability and extend a decent life to support the peace process.
Al-Mahmoud highlighted Qatar’s continuous role in achieving peace in Darfur within the framework of Arab-African ministerial committee on conflict resolution and in close co-operation with the joint mediator of the African Union and the UN. 
He said Qatar’s efforts has been fruitful with the adoption of the Doha Peace Document in Darfur, which included among other settlement terms, articles on reconciliation and the Darfur-Darfur dialogue in order to end tribal conflicts and mend the social fabric. 
The goal of Qatar in this context was the immediate cessation of violence to achieve a state of stability, to resolve the issue of power and wealth division, to reform existing social institutions, to support a culture of peace and to alleviate the suffering of victims. 
He added, Qatar considered reconciliation this way as part of a comprehensive process to bring about peace to the society that have been suffering for years through three stages which are violation cessation and resolving the conflict by addressing its causes followed by addressing the effects of the conflict. 
Stressing that national reconciliation in the Arab and African countries requires strong political will from all actors, he added, it also requires an open mind that accepts the other according to the rule that what brings together the sons of one country is much greater than what divide them, adding that the preoccupation of national political forces with each other opens the way for agendas and harmful external interventions. He stressed that any successful reconciliation must focus on recognising the right of the victims and rehabilitating them ensuring that their suffering is not repeated, and a clear assignment of responsibilities within a strategic context aimed at moving towards a stage of stability and harmony. 
But it remains crucial for national reconciliation to take its course, and that this reconciliation becomes a permanent culture among all components of society and that this culture replaces exclusion, marginalisation and rejecting the other.
Al-Mahmoud pointed out that in the framework of Qatar’s efforts to contribute to activating the role of parliamentary diplomacy in international peace and security issues, Doha will host from April 6 to 10 the meeting of the 140th session of the General Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the meetings related to it.
 He said that the conference held yesterday comes within the framework of the implementation of the work programme of the Association of Senates, Shura and Equivalent Councils in Africa and the Arab World, which was ratified at its 10 conference in Morocco in 2017, and includes topics such as peace-building, conflict resolution in Africa and the Arab World.
He added that the conference coincides with the efforts of reconciliations and dialogues taking place in the Arab and African region in order to re-establish harmony, as they derive from the need of the region for the means, efforts and mechanisms that bring together the parties and promote the concept of tolerance.

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