Qatari Emir: Israel major source of tensions in region

The Emir of Qatar calls Israel the major source of tensions in West Asia, saying instability will persist in the region unless the occupying regime stops violating international law.

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani made the comment in an address to a US-Arab summit in the Saudi city of Jeddah on Saturday, during which regional and international developments were discussed as well as aspects of expanding cooperation between the participating countries.

According to Press TV, Al Thani said the Israeli settlement constructions, the regime’s attempts to change the demography of al-Quds and its blockade of the Gaza Strip are the root causes of instability and tension.

“The major sources of tension and instability in the region are here to stay unless Israel stops its practices and violations of international law, including building colonial settlements, changing the character of al-Quds and the continued blockade of Gaza,” the Qatari Emir said.

Al Thani also called for the need to find a just solution to the Palestine issue, adding that the matter is a central cause for the Arab and Muslim people.

The summit was attended by US President Joe Biden and the leaders of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Egypt, Iraq and Jordan.

Between 600,000 and 750,000 Israelis occupy over 250 illegal settlements built since the 1967 occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state, with East al-Quds as its capital. 

The presence and continued expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in Occupied Palestine, however, have created a major obstacle to the establishment of such a state.

The last round of Israeli-Palestinian talks collapsed in 2014, with Israel’s continued settlement expansion emerging as a key sticking point.

All Israeli settlements are deemed illegal under international law as they are built on the Occupied Land. The UN and most countries regard the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories they are built on were captured by Israel in a war in 1967 and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on Occupied Lands.

The UN Security Council has time and again condemned the occupying regime’s diabolic settler-colonialism project in its umpteen resolutions.

ME