 I am going to give the Vice Prime Minister the floor and is going to deal with two related issues about the Middle East. The number one issue is to describe the mess and the second issue is how to get out of the mess. So, Your Excellency, Mr. Vice Prime Minister, I am very happy to give you the floor. I remind many of our participants, guests here, that you were also the guest of honor of similar lunch two years ago, exactly in the same place in Marrakesh. The floor is yours. Good afternoon, everybody. Mr. Théry de Montréal, the Executive Chairman of the French Institute of International Relations and Founder and Chairman of the World Policy Conference. First of all, I would like to thank you for inviting me here today. Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, it is an honor to be speaking at the World Policy Conference once again. It is always a pleasure to share my thoughts with you all and exchange ideas. I had the chance to look at the agenda and I believe the sessions and panels cover a wide range of critical topics from globalization to cybersecurity. Personally, I believe in the mission of this conference, which is to promote world that's more open, more prosperous, and fairer, and explore non-aggressive ways of adopting how states connect with each other at all levels, while respecting the culture and fundamental interests of each nation. In that respect, allow me to shed the light on a topic the agenda is missing and ask a critical question of collective security. How do we, in the MENA region, transition from managing crises to seeking comprehensive solutions? We were in New York a few weeks ago and designed the Amir Spock to the United Nations General Assembly on the many challenges we face in the MENA region – crises, conflicts, transnational threats, diplomatic tensions, and violent interventions. We have witnessed a failure after failure of regional and multilateral organizations in solving conflicts in addition to the failure or refusal to hold perpetrators accountable. Although the Middle East is a region of turmoil, we in Qatar view the Middle East as a critical region with the global importance. It is the global intersection of air, sea, and lands, and even the birth of faith. In fact, we come from a dynamic energy hub, a pillar of international financial networks, and crossroads for human migration. Unfortunately, we also come from the same region that is largely divided, with scattered conflict areas and lack of trust and coordination. We ask time and time again why are conflicts in the Middle East resistance to both regional and global diplomacy? Why some states allowed to resort to diplomacy of denial, rejecting the diplomacy as a legitimate mode of international action? We have witnessed firsthand how this strategy is highly destabilizing and creates a great uncertainty. Although this strategy is usually used by terrorist networks, warlords, and militias, we have seen the trend of diplomacy of denial among some states in the region, who wage war, blockade, and disrespect regional and international mechanisms. I recall His Highness the Emir remarks at the United Nations General Assembly that regional security system is crucial to preserve the security of the Middle East in general and the Gulf region in particular. During the Munich Security Conference, the Emir called for collective action to put differences aside. Similarly, in my last participation in the World Policy Conference, I called for an enforcing mechanism to end conflicts. I am here today to reiterate that call, and to give a perspective on the importance of a regional security pact in the Middle East. The Middle East desperately needs a sustainable framework to ensure long-term peace and stability. The chain of events in our region demonstrated the practical utility to a coherent approach for regional collective security. What we need in the Middle East is collective regional binding mechanism based on agreed principles of security and a set of rules for governance, respect of sovereignty and equality among its members. This means that all countries need to agree on a baseline of non-interference in the domestic and foreign affairs of states. And more importantly, not to use ethnic or confessional diversity and minorities as a scapegoat for interference. We have to build nations of citizens, hoping these initial steps would provide incentives and pave the way for the region peace and prosperity. Expanding the scope of the agreement is also important, so that it is not only limited to security issues, but also includes cooperation and dialogue, once with economic and political dimensions, to build the trust and confidence among members. The unbalanced policy in the region and aggressive miscalculations are impractical over the past months and years. We have witnessed unprecedented tensions arising from miscalculations. The idea of playing off one against the other in a balance of power scenario is dangerous and puts Qatar and the whole region in a volatile situation. Instead of applying maximum pressure or exclusion, there is a greater prospect in collaboration and working together in containing threats within a regional collective security scheme. Without doubt, achieving stability in the Middle East is more likely if there is a foundation of stability in those countries who need support from friendly states with a stable foundation. We can work hand in hand with those nations to advance trade, regional development, good governance, and the productive use of energy resources. The solution we are calling for is a wider regional security in the Middle East, an agreement on basic security principles and rules of governance to allow for peace and prosperity. Despite the gravity of the geopolitical tension, we still believe in this today. Thank you. We are going to have, maybe it's more convenient for me to stay here as we see the people better. Well, thank you very much for this precise, for this precise intervention, but you know you said the number of principles which make a lot of sense, but of course for countries to respect a set of principles and rules of the game, they have to agree beforehand on the rules themselves and on their will to respect the rules. And do you see any chance in the foreseeable future for countries such as Iran, the major powers in the region, that is Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, to go in the direction, to move in the direction you have indicated? Do you think there are any signs that they could play that game or is it not more realistic to believe that kind of war, direct or indirect, will continue until some sort of balance of power is reached? And also the role of external powers such as the United States, Russia and others. That's my simple question. Thank you, Terry for this wide question. First of all, I believe that it's the only way forward. We are not talking about multiple choices or options for the countries to choose what the way forward could look like, but now it's really the big question is about the time. The overall environment in the region is very tense. And we see that the room of diplomacy and the gates to this room are narrowing very much. But what we are calling for all those countries, instead of trying to projecting their power in order to change the balances in the region and then resort to the diplomacy, I think it's better to start from now because these miscalculations might lead us to a long cycle of chaos that the region cannot afford. We appreciate the role of the international community. We appreciate the role of the big powers if they are going to contribute to this constructively and we are not going to be a competition field for them. But we strongly believe that what's happening in the region need to be led from the region and need to be a regional led solution. And I think that what we see right now is just an increasing tension and an exchange of attacks against each other, whether it's military attacks or it is some sort of specific operations that hurting the whole region. We believe that since the tension now is quite high, it might also represent an opportunity if those big countries are going to play a constructive and positive role by encouraging all the parties to engage in a regional dialogue rather than helping them in dividing the situation more and more in the region. It is a very delicate moment for all of us and needs a lot of leadership from the big countries to come and lead a regional led process. You mentioned the leadership of big countries. Do you see any leader among the big countries nowadays? Which countries specifically? I'm talking about my region. I have no, you know, I'm not talking about the big players in the international community or the P5 as they call them. But we see that unfortunately there is a vacuum of leadership in the region. And this is a fact that we are witnessing right now. We see that there are a lot of miscalculated decisions took place. If we would have this strong leadership in the region, it wouldn't happen. We have seen that all the conflicts ongoing in the region and we didn't see an act coming out of the region. For example, just one of our unfortunately failed example of regional cooperation is the Arab League. We had four Arab capitals bombed every day and still bombed, still being bombed every day. And they didn't move, they didn't move a step. But when Turkey started their operation in northern Syria, they have called all the Arabs to condemn this. But okay, we are not saying that what has been done, we are not in a position to judge right or wrong. But what happened with all these capitals that's been bombed by even outside forces? Israel is bombing in Lebanon, in Syria, in Iraq. The Arab League didn't move. And we have Arab countries are bombing in another Arab countries and the Arab League didn't move. We have a lot of issues that the regional cooperation framework we have, it's not effective. Thank you very much. We have time for two or three questions. Who would like to, I say a hand, yes please, Mr. Shambas. Thank you very much. My question is specifically on Sahel. We have seen countries, Mali, now Burkina Faso, Niger, Abtuchad, and a lot of pressure from extremists, violent extremists. And these are countries that are majority Muslim countries. So it is not out of question to express and to wish some more solidarity from countries in the Middle East such as Qatar to fight these terrorists and violent extremists. So far to be honest, we are seeing that France working through a force that has been deployed and then also supporting JSA Sahel countries, Germany is making some effort, the United States. But the nature of the threat is similar to what we saw in northern Iraq and in Syria. The global coalition, a global coalition is required to come to support these poor countries which have a huge responsibility to have effective control of our huge territories. So would your country be willing to play a more active role in the context of a global effort? The ECOWAS countries themselves have met. They said now we must draw the line. We cannot let this threat go beyond Burkina Faso. We must face it squarely, terrorism and violent extremism. But we need a global coalition because the same Islamic state is now showing itself as Islamic state West Africa province. And it must be defeated in West Africa. We would like to hear from you, your excellency, what your country can do in the context of this global effort to face terrorism and violent extremism in the Sahel. Thank you. Thank you. First of all, it's very important to watch very closely what's happening in the Sahar region. And we believe that the threat of terrorism and extremism is now transnational. It's not limited to the Middle East, but it's migrating from different places to another with almost free movements. What's happening there in Sahar region is very dangerous and threatening the international peace and security and not only threatening Africa and all of us, the international community should be united in fighting this phenomenon. Right now the available mechanisms in a place for helping and supporting the Sahel country is the French-led initiative which is on the G7 Sahel, I think they call it. And Qatar is contributing directly to the states. For example, Mali and Burkina, we have already supporting them and have sent them already some support for military equipment they need for their fight. But meanwhile, we also do another initiative that addresses the grassroots for those terrorism and violent extremism by providing education and building schools over there. So in Mali, for example, two years ago, we have launched a program for one million children in Mali to be educated under education above all institutions which is in Qatar. And also we are doing the same programs to the other Sahel country. But I think it's very important to emphasize on the importance of resolving the conflicts in that region in order to have a safe environment for the people, but also not to allow the terrorists to find it as a fertile ground for them. Like for example the Northern Mali issue, we need to put an end for this conflict. We need to find a way forward to resolve it. And I think there is a lot of efforts from friendly nations who are trying to help in resolving this issue. But overall, Sahel remains very important not for Africa and not for Europe but for all of us in the region. And for two more questions, well, three. Okay. Bertrand Badre, Mr. Tanaka, and, okay, Maela, Joseph Maela. Thank your excellence and thank you, Thierry. Bertrand Badre, founder of Blue Lycan Orange Sustainable Capital. You mentioned in your introductory remark your recent trip to New York for UN General Assembly. And one of the main things that you have done was to present alongside France and Jamaica the climate finance action plan. So my question coming back to the region is that is this renewed focus on issues like climate and water, et cetera, which are really shared within the region, might be a catalyst for more in-depth cooperation between the various countries in the region. Thank you very much. Thank you. I'm not sure if I understood your question quite clearly, but I'll try to explain what I understood. Well, the climate change is a global matter that everybody should be concerned about and should be a matter that unites countries. And using these things that uniting countries to unite the region, we believe it's very important. But what we have seen until now is nothing has been practical to bring the countries together. So one example is the climate change, but another example for us in the Gulf is the issue of water, which is vital for all the Gulf countries and Iran as well. We didn't even have a dialogue around this topic, which is existential for our people in that region. So I think we are still, there is a lack of maturity in the countries in the region to talk about the uniting topics and not to just limit their talks to the controversial issues that they are having differences with. We have seen a sort of agreement in the OPEC for the oil production, but this is because it's all a direct win-win situation for the countries who are part of OPEC. But nothing that touching directly the people of the region, we didn't see any move like this. In Qatar, we believe Qatar is a small country, it's a global player at the end of the day. We care a lot about a lot of global issues and we are trying to see which areas that we can contribute positively in and we do it like in the climate change and this green fund that has been launched in New York, we see a need for this and we see a need for the small states to be supported and help through these sort of mechanisms. So our contribution was directed to those small states and islands who are going to suffer an existential threat in the near future because of the climate change. Nobuo Tanaka. Thank you very much, Terry, for inviting me. First, as a former Executive Director of the IA, I'm the energy experts and also as Japanese, I have to start talking to you, sir, that Qatar helped us by providing us a huge amount of gas after the March 11, 2011, after the catastrophe of Japan and tsunami. So I have to first thank you very much for your great help as a good friend from Qatar. I have to stop saying my thanks. My question is not about energy today. My question is about gender. At the Sasakawa Peace Foundation as I'm the chair of, we are promoting empowering women in the Muslim countries. We have communicated with some countries and there are many empowered women there. UN women says that if women are involved in a peace negotiation, this peace negotiation can be achieved much, much more chance than those with men. And peace negotiation could stay longer when deployment is by the women. So this is statistically correct. If women will be used much more in the peace talk in the Middle East, why don't you leave this very important issue to the women in the Middle East for making better and long-lasting peace? Thank you, but your question is very tricky. If I say yes, this will help, then I will be asked by the fellow man and then if I say no, it won't work, then all the women are going to hate me. So what I would like to start with is that we have all the respect for the role of women in the Middle East. They have contributed throughout history in a very constructive manner. And what they did to our region and to the countries has been highly appreciated by everyone and recognized by everyone. We believe that women participation should be in all the fields. It's not only on peace negotiation or on specific area. And they are participating, in fact, in the region if you see the participation of women 10 years ago and you compare it to what's happening, what's going right now, there is a very big shift in their participation. And this is not new to the Middle East, by the way. The woman has been always through the history participating hand-in-hand with the men just for a few years or decades. They've been more behind the scenes and not on the front line. For peace negotiations, trust me, if the woman can achieve it, maybe one day the men will screw it up. So let us put them hand-in-hand together and negotiate for peace. I don't see an exclusive role for men and women. I'm seeing an exclusive role for visionary leaders to come and talk about new initiatives that bring people together. Thank you. Well, thank you very much. I think we may have time because lunch should continue for those who are lucky enough to eat. So I will give the floor to Mona Makram-Ebed from Egypt and Falker Pertes from Germany. I think they're on the same table, no? Mona. Hello, Mr. Minister. We're glad to see somebody from Qatar because we don't see them anymore in any country in our region. So I'm glad to hear what you have to say. But it's exactly what we would like to see for regional security is to have cooperation between the countries and not to have this division that we have now. It's not only in the Arab League, but it's also in the Gulf Cooperation Council. And I think that Qatar could play quite a role in trying to get what you call the big countries together. Egypt is one of them in case you forgot. So I'm trying to remind you that it is a country of 100 million as a population. And I think that it is quite open today to have some sort of reconciliation because the division that was called with the quartet has only been detrimental to the whole region. Thank you. First of all, thank you for your kind welcoming. Well, look, Qatar has been a strong believer in the cooperation and dialogue. And talking about the division and what's happening within the Gulf, it's really counterproductive not for Qatar only, but for the entire region. And we see that how it paralyzed the situation. But Qatar never used the diplomacy of denial, which I just mentioned here in my remarks. And we remained open to engage and to talk with everyone within the Gulf, with Egypt. And we have no problem with the other Arab countries. I am as a country, as a small country, I will have a problem with the countries who initiated a hostility against my country, who threatened in one day my existence. And with all this, with all what they have done, we have said that we are always open, we are always welcoming. Any initiative that will lead for a unity again. And unity doesn't mean that we should love each other, we should live with each other. That's what we are talking about. Regarding Egypt, Egypt is an important country in the region. We have reiterated on this several times. It is one of the leaders in the region. It has a potential, a huge potential in the leadership in the region because of its population, because of its resources. And we hope one day that this leadership will see the light with other leading countries like Iraq also as a leader in the region. Syria one day, we hope that we can recover it from all this happening and how it's been hijacked by a war criminal until now. And all these countries can lead the future of our region. So in Qatar, we are open to everyone. We want to see those big countries assuming their leadership role and moving the way forward for our region for a better future for the generations. Well, thank you very much. It's already quite late. I see many, many hands. So I will take only two. I am sorry. So Volker Berthes and Joseph Mahila. Thank you very much. Volker Berthes from Germany, Deputy Prime Minister. I appreciate what you said about regional dialogue. But let me, in a way, follow up on what Mona Makramabayit from Egypt asked you, namely to speak about the regional role of Qatar itself. Five years ago, Qatar tried to be a leader in the region, partly by sponsoring diplomacy, mediation in Darfur, for example, or in Lebanon, but also by quite aggressively funding and supporting both political and armed opposition in Syria. And that didn't succeed very well, to say the least. How would you, in retrospect, evaluate your own role and your own attempt to change the situation in one of the countries of the region? Well, first of all, just to correct some of your statement, sir, that Qatar is not trying to be a leader in the region in the last two years or before the two years. Qatar has been, for two decades, very active diplomatically in the region in resolving conflict. We never punch over our weight. We know our size. We know we are a small country. And we know that Qatar played a leadership role throughout the two decades. We have helped in resolving conflicts with Iran, Sudan, and Darfur. There was a genocide over there. People has been displaced. Qatar was the one who brokered the agreement. We are helping and supporting Lebanon and resolving the crisis between Djibouti and Eritrea, and a lot more than this. If we are talking about Qatar involvement in the regional issues, we care about our region, we want stability for our region, and we want a better future for the people of the region. But when it comes to the choice between the people and some leaders who are authoritarian or waging a war against their own population, definitely we will go and stand with the people. And I'm sorry, sir, when you mentioned that Qatar funded certain political groups or certain armed groups in Syria or anywhere else, this is totally a misstatement by you on Qatar. Because whatever we have done throughout the past years, we were doing it through a collective mechanism that everybody is seeing what's happening and what's going on with our money. Whether it's in Syria, we were jointly together working with the United States, with Saudi, with Jordan, with England, with France, with everyone. It was one joint operation room that takes the funding for the armed groups because it was an international consensus to remove a war criminal from his place after he bombed his people with chemical weapons. When you are talking about other areas in the region, for example Libya. Libya, we've been very much coherent with international resolutions, with the Security Council resolutions, and we didn't do anything out of this context. We worked hand-in-hand with the NATO forces in 2011 to help the people over there. When there was a dispute among them in 2015, they came up with an agreement. And as Khayrat, we continued to support the legitimate government. There are a lot of other countries whom you didn't mention here, who are funding the different forces and different militias who undermined the legitimate government. And now everybody is calling to being strict with the Security Council resolution. And no one has talked about Security Council resolutions for the past five years since the conflict restarted again in Libya. In other countries, for example, you can look at, check and verify Qatar's position, the real position, and not with all the respect what you read, maybe in some newspaper, which I don't know from where they've been propagated. Go and check what's happening on the ground, check with the governments, and you can see that Qatar always supporting the will of the people and the legitimate governments, while other countries are trying to undermine those legitimate governments and the will of the people. So Qatar is not associated with any political party, it's not associated with a certain agenda in the region. We want to see stability in the region. Qatar is not a political party. Qatar is a state, whether it's small or big, it doesn't matter. It's what matters really the effectiveness of the country and its role. Thank you. Thank you very much for this detailed answer, very precise. And very last question, Joseph Mahila. Thank you, thank you very much, Jerry. Thank you very much, Excellency, for your comprehensive take. I have three quick questions, very concise one. First we'll follow the question put forward by Falker Perthes. What is the role today of Qatar in trying to mediate within the Gulf crisis? I mean, can we expect someday a mediation between Iran and the U.S. in order to work for de-escalation in the Gulf? My second question is that two years ago you have opened a link, a rapprochement between Qatar and the Russian and Russia. What is it about today? And my third one will be very much linked to the actuality. Two days ago Turkey has been on the move in the northern part of Syria. What do you expect of that? How Qatar is looking at this new move which might add violence to violence? Thank you very much for your answers. Well, regarding your question about the situation in the Gulf, Qatar, of course, we have a very strong alliance with the United States and this partnership now has been for more than four decades. And we have also a friendly relationship with Iran because also Iran is part of our region and it's just across the border from us. And unfortunately, when we've been blockaded by our neighbors and we are not allowed to use the airspace, Iran were the ones who opened their airspace and ports for us despite our differences with them and disagreements on certain issues. So for us, we are in a very dangerous situation when the tension comes between our strongest ally and our neighbor which now represents an existential need for Qatar. So we always have an open channel with both countries trying to de-escalate and defuse the tension. We've never been asked by any of the countries to mediate between them but both of the countries has been responsive positively with our calls for de-escalation and we hope one day that this rapprochement will happen and we can reach an agreement. The agreement between U.S. and Iran is important but more importantly, I see an agreement between Iran and the region. Regarding the second question, our relation with Russia, we are a small country. We have a strategic alliance with a lot of countries, for example Japan, for the United States, with main countries in Europe like France and Germany. We have a lot of investments and cooperation and we don't see anything that prevents us from having a relationship with Russia and we are not planning to take anything out of this relationship rather than a friendly relationship and mutual benefit for both countries. So our relation has been growing in a steady manner. We have built this partnership especially in the economic and the energy sector and both of us, Qatar and Russia are one of the two of the largest exporting countries in Gaza and we have to have this sort of understanding between both of us. Regarding North and Syria and Turkey, if we will look at what happened in the last two days with the intervention of Turkey and the North and Syria, we see that the way it happened because of the threat being represented for Turkey and I don't think that we have to blame now Turkey while we didn't try to help in solving the problem in the first place. There have been a negotiation for almost one year and a half to eliminate the threat from the border and this negotiation didn't lead to anything. So now Turkey is between two options. Either they stay in their place and they wait for some of the terrorist groups who are threatening their security to come and to be strengthened and to be right on their borders or to take an action which will not be liked internationally. What we want to assure you that Qatar remains has a firm position on the integrity of Syria. We don't accept any division over there. We don't want to see a demographic change and we believe Turkey has proven that they are not a destructive role in Syria. What they have done in the northern part of Syria earlier by helping the government and the temporary government over there has been already proven for everyone. So we hope that what's happening now in the northern part will ensure the security of Turkey which is an important country and an important ally not for Qatar only but for all of the European countries. But also it has a big participation from the Syrian opposition which is the Free Army, Free Syrian Army which will take the place after that to police the area. Thank you. Well, thank you very much, Sheikh Mohammed. I think the presentation, the intervention raised a lot of interest and there were many other questions but we cannot spend the whole afternoon and you have to fly back to Doha so have a safe flight back even though it takes a little more time than usual, I understand. An hour or so, something like that? Two hours. Two hours extra. Before leaving I would like to ask everyone here to look at the tent. No, because this is a tent, a real tent and I understand that it's a technical achievement and for that we have to thank, not only for that, our Moroccan friends. So that is my last point and again thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. I would like to thank everybody.