Vienna: Minister of Foreign Affairs H E Dr Khalid bin Mohammad Al Attiyah participated in the expanded meeting to discuss a political settlement to the Syrian crisis, in Vienna yesterday.
The meeting was attended by delegations representing Russia, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran, UAE, Jordan, Germany, France, Egypt, Italy, Britain, Iraq, Lebanon, China, Oman as well as the UN Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura and the High Representative of the European Union Federica Mogherini.
The meeting discussed specific proposals to activate the political process in Syria.
Earlier Al Attiyah has participated in a working breakfast on the sidelines of the plenary meeting. The delegations from the US, France, Germany, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the UAE and Jordan also attended the meeting.
Al Attiyah has ruled out boots on the ground in Syria, adding that financial aid is more needed in the war-torn country.
Despite having recently claimed that Qatar would consider “military intervention” to protect Syrians caught in a war between the Syrian army and opposition fighters, Attiyah ruled out the possibility of Qatari ground forces or air strikes being deployed, in an interview with Al Jazeera aired yesterday.
“It is out of the question to have our soldiers’ feet on the ground,” he said.
“They can liberate their country themselves. What they want is financial support, they want people to listen to them.”
Referring to a recent call by the Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani for dialogue between Gulf countries and Iran to solve political differences, he said: “We don’t see the dispute with Iran in the region as a Sunni-Shia thing.
“What we are seeing and what we are fearing is an Arab-Persian conflict which we want to avoid.”
Arab-Iranian tensions have been at play in the conflicts in Syria and Yemen. Attiyah also urged Iran to “calm down the language” to help facilitate dialogue between the two sides.
On the Israel-Palestine conflict, he warned Israel that security measures at the Al Aqsa Mosque compound are provocative and are effectively “offending 1.5 billion Muslims” globally.
“Anything that protects the Syrian people and Syria from partition, we will not spare any effort to carry it out with our Saudi and Turkish brothers, no matter what this is,” Al Attiyah said.
QNA/Agencies
