Qatar says oppression and exclusion deepen rifts among Iraqis

Qatar’s Foreign Minister, Khalid bin Mohamed Al-Attiyah, has said that his country is deeply concerned about events and security developments taking place in Iraq which, he believes, have resulted from negative factors over a number of years. These include the pursuit of narrow partisan policies, marginalisation and exclusion, which have deepened rifts among the Iraqi people. He made his remarks at the opening ceremony of the Group of 77 (G77) plus China summit on Sunday.

“In the light of these rapid developments, we urge those concerned to pay attention quickly to the demands of those Iraqis who only seek equality, away from all forms of sectarian discrimination,” he said, pointing out that Qatar condemns all forms of terrorism and violence. “We hope that they turn to reason and dialogue in dealing with the current crisis, to preserve the unity of Iraq’s land, people and institutions, and to stay away from anything that would deepen the splits, in the interests of Iraq and neighbouring countries,” he added.

On the developments in Libya, Al-Attiyah said that the situation requires the group to use its lead role to convince all parties of the importance of direct political dialogue with full support from the international community. “They can develop radical solutions to the existing problems even if that means going to the UN Security Council for a binding resolution which requires all Libyan parties to engage in direct dialogue under UN auspices to move towards construction and development”.

The foreign minister said that in order to achieve common goals to secure a better future for everyone, “we need to focus on dealing with the existing imbalances in the structure of the current international setup to lay the foundations of a democratic system that reflects the global reality.” This, he pointed out, means maximising efforts to prevent double standards when dealing with issues in the developing world. “We also need to consolidate justice and equality in international and multilateral frameworks by continuing to push for institutional reform of the United Nations and its principal organs,” insisted Al-Attiyah, “to enable them to deal positively with global and regional challenges, to enable the body to assume its intended role in international governance and to achieve the aspirations of peoples in developing countries.”