Al Mahmoud: Qatar Plays Pivotal Role in Establishing United Nations Alliance of Civilizations

Baku , April 26 (QNA) - HE Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Mahmoud said that under the wise leadership of HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al -Thani, Qatar has played a pivotal role in establishing the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) since its earlier days as a complement to the political and security efforts being made by the United Nations and the international community to prevent and resolve conflicts amicably. Al Mahmoud's remarks came in his keynote speech at the high-level meeting of the Alliance of Civilizations Group of Friends at United Nations, during which he conveyed the greetings of HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani to the participants and wishes success to the forum. He added that Qatar has supported the Alliance's message in all possible ways to achieve its goals, noting that Qatar has established Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue in an effort to encourage peaceful coexistence among cultures and acceptance of others. HE Al Mahmoud noted that Qatar Committee for Alliance of Civilizations has been established in order to highlight the contribution of the Arab and Islamic civilization to other civilizations and human progress in General, adding that Qatar hosts annually a number of events and periodic forums for dialogue between different cultures and religions with a view to providing opportunities to promote coexistence , urging men of religion and thought to play a constructive role in their communities. HE Deputy Prime Minister highlighted the valuable contributions of the Alliance of Civilizations Group of Friends at United Nations, especially Spain and Turkey?s Co-sponsorship of the meeting and the hosting countries of previous global forums, namely Qatar, Brazil, Austria and Indonesia. He said that the opening speeches by President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Spain's Minister of Foreign Affairs Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, the UN High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations HE Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser included a set of contributions and suggestions for developing work of the forum . In this context, HE Al Mahmoud confirmed that the message of co-existence is a core element of Qatar's policy as it rejects all forms of extremism and intolerance, as HH the Emir emphasized that our position towards terrorism and religious radicalism that offend religion and society is clear and unequivocal attitude regardless of the analysis of its reasons and dealing with them. HE the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs has pointed out that the Qatar National Vision 2030, which represents a roadmap for the future of Qatar, was based, in parallel with the pillars of the sustainable development launched by the international community, on building a secure and stable society run by principles of justice, equality and supremacy of law, and on the entrenching of the spirit of tolerance, constructive dialogue and openness towards other on the national and international levels. He stressed that this is the way for having secure and integrated societies coexisting in security and peace on the way of attaining a real sustainable development. HE Al Mahmoud added that relations between the different civilizations are marred by the law level of confidence among its parties as a result of many historical, political and social circumstances, saying that constitutes an obstacle before any equitable civilizational dialogue among them as stereotypical images of peoples about other civilizations are negative in some of their aspects and this require on all of us to intensify efforts to lighten the accusation so that the cultural gap among parties would not become wide. HE Al Mahmoud expressed deep concern over the systematic violations based on ethnicity and creed of which many categories are suffering including the steadfast Arab people under occupation in the Middle East. What concerns us more are false accusations by some who generalize the lining of terrorism to individuals and communities on the basis of their affiliation to Islam, which is a violation of international conventions and the humanitarian law, though most of the victims of terrorisms are Muslims, he added. HE the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs pointed out in this regard that terrorism is the enemy of the humanity as a whole and has no religion, ethnicity or gender and causes the same harm in the east, the west, the north and the south of the world. He said terrorism, as per international norms and covenants, is an aggression on every religion and civilization. (QNA)