World leaders gathered in New York yesterday as the United Nations began its most important meeting of the year, the 76th UN General Assembly (UNGA). The in-person and onscreen attends by the leaders is first time in two years. The present assembly comes at a particular juncture as the decision makers of the world are facing a formidable agenda of tackling several crises such as the still-raging COVID-19 pandemic, unprecedented repercussions of climate change such as floods, wild fires, droughts etc and scores of regional and domestic conflicts, including the fluid political, and damaging humanitarian situation in Afghanistan.
Addressing the General Assembly yesterday, Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani dwelt on all the pressing issues that the humanity confronts. H H the Amir called for a consorted effort from the whole world to tackle the problems vexing different nations, reiterating Qatar’s long-standing position of dialogue and collective responsibility in finding lasting solutions to the varied issues.
H H the Amir said that the meeting being held under the meaningful theme, ‘Restoring Hope’, sends an important message about returning to normalcy and comes after a difficult time that the world has faced and still passing through as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Citing Qatar’s example in helping other countries to fight the pandemic, especially the contribution to the Global Alliance for Vaccine and immunisation, Amir called on the world to come together to eliminate the pandemic.
Referring to the situation in Afghanistan, H H the Amir said that the American decision to withdraw troops following negotiations with the Taliban constituted an extremely critical turning point for that country. Now the responsibility to bring normalcy to that country rests primarily on Afghan people and the international community as well, the Amir said, adding that what happened in Afghanistan is not a victory or defeat for anybody, but a failure of an attempt to impose a political system from outside.
Amir asserted the need for continuing dialogue with the Taliban, because boycott only leads to polarisation and reactions, whereas dialogue could bring in positive results, reminding the world of the importance of supporting Afghanistan and avoid a humanitarian catastrophe. Qatar played a decisive role in the evacuation of thousands of people from Afghanistan and extended immediate help in the form of plane loads of food and other relief materials.
The Amir reiterated the importance of regional unity such as the recent positive moves in the Gulf Cooperation Council. Stressing again on the effectiveness of negotiations, Amir cited the example of Al-Ula summit which reinforced the brotherly relations among the GCC members.
H H the Amir referred to the regional conflicts and crises such as the protracted Palestinian conflict, Syrian crisis, war in Yemen, Libyan conflict etc and called for unified effort to find solutions to these long-running issues.
