Moscow / Information Office / July 28

HE the Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the Russian Federation Fahad bin Mohammed Al Attiyah said that the cause of the current Gulf crisis lies in the different visions between the State of Qatar and the siege countries with regard to the present and the future.

During an interview with the Russian radio station Echo Moskvy (Echo of Moscow), HE the Ambassador said that since the outbreak of the "Arab Spring Revolutions", the State of Qatar has, in principle, taken a position in harmony with the aspirations of the Arab peoples and their right to freedom, dignity and choice of government. This applies to Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen, he explained.

He said the State of Qatar had taken the principled position that the peoples that have risen to injustice, tyranny and deprivation have the right to determine their own destiny without any external interference, adding that the majority of the Arab peoples that have revolted, found support in the Qatari position.

HE Ambassador explained that Qatar did not force the Arab Spring nations to revolt. The moved on their own, driven by the repression, marginalization, deprivation and harsh conditions they had suffered throughout their lives, he added.

Responding to a question on the reason for Qatar's neighboring countries to take a different stance, HE the Ambassador said that Qatar goes along with the current, and the others go against it. They are minority if compared with the masses in the Arab countries and this frightens them and pushes them to take unreasonable steps, he added explaining that Qatar always call for adopting dialogue as a means to settle disputes.

He went saying that, if the others have the right or worthy points of view, then the Arab peoples would support them, "But in fact, no one supports their position because it calls for violence and the use of force," he said.

HE the Ambassador asked," where did terrorism, of which we are suffering, come from? What are its causes and the roots of this phenomenon? Did it grow under a regime that upholds democracy and human rights or in countries where authoritarian and dictatorial regimes have existed for 70 years?

"We do not speak in an absolute justice, we seek at least relative justice, " he said.

HE Ambassador Al Attiyah said that the term "terrorism" has lost its real meaning and has become a means used to exclude others. He pointed out that the general feeling of fear of violence is exploited for labeling opposition with terrorism. All the world countries, big or small, started claiming to be fighting terrorism, he added.

He asked: "What is this terrorism that everyone is fighting against? Why has not it ended yet, even though the whole world is fighting it? Is it correct to use the term terrorism as a cover for settling accounts, or we should we use it responsibly?"

HE Qatar's Ambassador to the Russian Federation Fahad bin Mohammed Al Attiyah said: "The position of the State of Qatar is clear in this regard. We consider anyone who jeopardizes the lives of others to achieve political goals, regardless of their origins and ideologies, as a terrorist, that should be fought with all possible means."

He pointed out that the siege countries are demanding Qatar to punish all those who oppose their regimes and disagree with their policies, and even to label them as terrorists. "This in itself is terrorism," he said. "The siege countries are trying to reproduce the regimes that produced terrorism, and they want to convince us that these regimes will fight terrorism," he added.

In response to a question that the State of Qatar hosts members of Muslim Brotherhood from Egypt and naturalizes them, HE the Ambassador said that the State of Qatar does not host the Muslim Brotherhood. He pointed out that a number of the Brotherhood leaders were residing in Qatar before 2014, but have left Qatar to other countries, adding that the Muslim Brotherhood group is not classified as a "terrorist organization" neither by the United Nations, Europe, nor even by 90% of the Islamic countries.

On the impact of the Gulf crisis on the pace of preparation for the 2022 World Cup, HE the Ambassador said that "it did not affect radically, especially with a good reserve of construction materials needed for the World Cup projects, in addition to that the State has succeeded in providing alternative sources."