HE The Qatar Prime Minister Calls for Reevaluating the Peace Process, Arab Initiative

Doha, December 09 (QNA) - HE the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor Al Thani called for an objective pause to reevaluate the peace process, including the Arab Initiative, after ten years of its approval. Addressing the meeting of the Ministerial Committee on the Peace Process,he said it is natural after a decade, to reevaluate the peace process and the Arab Initiative, to study, thoroughly, the rapid developments in the region and the world, to pinpoint the steps and roadmap for the next stage and to clearly show our people and the world, our position on the issue peace with Israel. HE the Prime and Foreign Minister stressed that the historic visit made by HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani to Gaza Strip was an important development and a major event that has its significance and implications. The visit was an Arab declaration for breaking the Israeli blockade clamped on Gaza, the evidence of which were the ensuing Arab high level Arab visits to the Strip, which gave morale-boosting to the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and abroad, not to mention the great support aid by the HH the Emir to the construction and reconstruction projects in the strip, HE said. He added, the visit of Khalid Meshaal of Hamas with a number of leaders of the movement to Gaza brings great pleasure and satisfaction. HE the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, who is also the chairman of the Ministerial Committee on the Arab Peace Initiative, stressed the importance of the Doha meeting, as it addresses the peace issue which is the most important among our nation's issues, the pivotal issue for which we have been working sincerely and responsibly over the past decade on the basis of the Arab Peace Initiative, approved during the Beirut Arab Summit in 28 March 2002. HE Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim congratulated the Palestinian people and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for the United Nations General Assembly decision granting Palestine the status of an observer state in the global organization. He stressed that the decision , which was passed by an overwhelming majority and wonwide international support, confirms the inevitability of the recognition of the full legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, foremost of which being their right to establish their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital. The decision gives Israel a lesson that we hope it will understand to deal with new thinking, not with the retaliatory attitude it is currently pursuing , HE stressed. HE the Prime Minister continued saying "We have said from the outset that the Arab Peace Initiative will not remain on the table forever and we do not seek peace at any price." He stressed that peace for us does not mean to surrender, but rather that each party should pay its obligations, renouncing the logic of power, method of evasion and deception, resorting to international law and the resolutions of international legitimacy, respect for international conventions, common interests and mutual trust. He noted that the Arab Peace Initiative was a real opportunity for Israel to provide, for its people, normal life in this area away from tension and fear for the future. "Israel, regrettably, ignored and underestimated this historic initiative imagining that force alone can provide security, safety and protection and that time and the balance of regional and international powers are on its side," he added. But he said that the events have proved that these are mere illusions, explaining that Israel failed in its war on Lebanon (2006), in the first war on Gaza (2008-2009) and its second war on Gaza (2012). He stressed that days will prove to Israel that, if it failed to understand the regional and international changes and honestly favored peace, force will not achieve security and that only peace can ensure its security and future. HE the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister said that Israel would be mistaken if it believed Arab countries would give up their legitimate rights, cede their land or sanctuaries, or if it considered the Palestinian cause is a passing by issue that their attention for would wane with the passage of time. He said the Palestinian issue will remain the central and major issue, stressing that there would be no peace with Israel without a just and comprehensive solution that gives the Palestinian people all their rights foremost of which being their right to establish their own independent state with Jerusalem as its capital. HE the Prime Minister said Israeli would be committing a grave mistake if it thought that the Arab countries have l exhausted all their cards and that they have nothing more in their hands saying in realty the Arabs have a lot of elements of strength, pressure and influence , but they chose to use the elements of strength, unlike Israel, for the sake of peace and stability and not for the exacerbation of tension in the region. HE the Prime Minister said that Israel's neglect for peace was no longer acceptable. HE the Prime Minister noted that there were plenty of changes in the region that were all in favor of the Palestinian cause, and will provide an appropriate climate for the new phase of the peace process based on new facts and clear and firm pillars in accordance with known terms of reference and a defined time schedule. HE the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister pointed that there clear signs of change, on the international level, towards the Arab and Palestinian legitimate rights. "We glimpse signs of an unmistakable change towards Arab and Palestinian legitimate rights, which is clearly demonstrated, over the past few days, in US's and Europe's firm positions towards the issue of Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank," he said. "It is true that these positions need to be activated and more efficient, but still as such are to praise," he added. He stressed that time has come for real Palestinian reconciliation based on what has been agreed in Doha and Cairo. "This reconciliation is that will give the Arab action real nominally a push the international community towards greater understanding and support for the Palestinian cause," he said. HE expressed optimism in looking forwards to the second term for US President Barack Obama, urging him favor international law and international legitimacy in dealing with the Palestinian issue. "We do not ask him more than favoring international law and international legitimacy in dealing with the Palestinian cause, as he knows very well that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian and Arab lands in 1967 is illegal as well as the Israeli settlement, and that resolving the Palestinian issue is the key to peace and stability in the Middle East". he said. HE the Premier called on the UN Security Council to assume its responsibilities in addressing the Israeli settlement expansion, saying that it is important to keep the UN Security Council before its responsibilities, of which the first and foremost is responsibility in addressing the Israeli settlement expansion in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, which peaked with the Israeli government's decision last week to build three thousand new settlement units. He stressed that the continuation of settlement means the elimination of two-state solution and the decline of any possibility of peace and thus dragging the region into a new cycle of violence and counter-violence, unless the UN Security Council moves seriously, decisively and fast, talking about peace will be meaningless. HE the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister stressed the need to review the performance of the international Quartet Committee and discuss the feasibility of its continuity, adding that it has shown nothing but failure and inability to achieve anything since it was formed in 2002. HE concluded his speech by saying, "I do not need to tell how important this meeting is, that based on its results the future of the peace process may be determined the future of the peace process, and the features of the next phase may be formed. (QNA)