Qatar pledges $500m to UN

Qatar has signed a number of partnership agreements with the United Nations (UN) with the aim of supporting the international organisation’s bodies and institutions, according to local media.

The agreements were signed on the sidelines of the Doha Forum, which was concluded yesterday.

Speaking at a press conference attended by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the Qatar’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said that Doha would boost the UN organisations by $500 million.

“Qatar is the sixth globally and the first Arab country in supporting the UN resources,” Al Thani pointed out.

On his part, Guterres hailed the Qatari government’s support for the UN, describing the agreements as “strategic and sustainable partnerships that would allow Qatar to contribute to the future of the UN’s operations.”

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Qatar also agreed to provide shelter to more than 26,000 displaced people from war-torn Yemen.

The $3 million deal, between the Qatar Development Fund, Qatar Charity and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), was inked yesterday.

Guterres pointed to Qatar’s “vital” role in signing the 2011 Darfur Peace Agreement – signed between Sudan and the Liberation and Justice Movement – as well as the Gulf state’s “contribution to two important human rights treaties”.

The humanitarian official said that four new UN bureaus would be opened in Qatar including offices for the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).