 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 being 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.