Prime Minister of Qatar: The war with Iran is not in the interest of the Gulf states, and reaching a solution through frank dialogue would be a great achievement for peace, trade and the economy

Prime Minister of Qatar: The war with Iran is not in the interest of the Gulf states, and reaching a solution through frank dialogue would be a great achievement for peace, trade and the economy

    Thursday, March 02, 2023   No comments

The former Prime Minister of Qatar, Hamad bin Jassim, said that the war with Iran is not in the interest of the Gulf states, calling for a frank dialogue to reach a solution that would be “a great achievement not only for peace but also for trade and the economy.”

This came in an interview with “Bloomberg” in response to a question about the concern of many Arab countries from Iran, especially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Bin Jassim added, “My first fear is not Iran, but we are in the region and the way we behave, I mean the leaders, I am not one of them. It should be discussed in a civilized manner.”

He continued, “If we have challenges ahead, and if we agree that Iran is our number one enemy, how will we deal with this matter? Will we deal with it through direct negotiations or war? Nobody wants war because it is not in our interest.”

He explained, “The problem is that this decision is not in our hands because we are not currently in a position, as I said about the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, to take the lead in our region and say, ‘Okay, we have problems with Iran. In harmony between Iran, Iraq and the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

And the former Prime Minister of Qatar believed that "if the Gulf countries were able to do this, it would be a great achievement not only for peace, but also for trade, business and the economy."

And he added, “They (in Iran) have more than 100 million people, Iraq has 40 million people, and we (the Gulf countries) have about 50 million people. We are talking about 200 or 250 million people in oil-rich countries, imagine what they can do.”

By not calling the Syrian government with words of condolence for the dead Syrians, Erdogan may have missed his chance to rehabilitate his sectarian supremacy

By not calling the Syrian government with words of condolence for the dead Syrians, Erdogan may have missed his chance to rehabilitate his sectarian supremacy

    Thursday, February 16, 2023   No comments

When a government minister from Greece, a country with which Turkey is threatening with war, becomes the first among his European colleagues to visit quake-hit Turkey to survey the extent of the disaster caused by the quakes there, Erdogan’s government should have done the same with its Syrian counterpart. After all, Erdogan has played a pivotal role in the crisis in that country that destroyed the country and left nearly 20% of its territory outside the control of the government. Instead, Erdogan chose to ignore common human compassion, Islamic norms that require ta`ziya, and neighborly obligation in order to preserve his political posturing.

Politics should never supersede human decency. That is why many of the Arab rulers who wished for the overthrown of the Syrian government and invested in that project, like the King of Jordan, the Sheikh of UAE, and Egypt’s Sisi’s, all of them despite their disagreements with the Syrian government, called the Syrian president for ta`ziya and to offer help. Sixteen other Arabi governments that cut ties with the Syrian government during the crisis reached out with words of support and offers of help. But not Erdogan.

Erdogan, who reshaped Turkish society to his liking, wanted to recreate his neighborhood as well, not work with his neighbors. He used religion, nationalism, and politics to pursue an agenda of supremacy driven by the same callous Darwinian capitalism that is at the root of most of the social and environmental illnesses. His refusal to do the decent thing and pick up the phone and say to his counterpart in the neighboring country that was devastated by the same deadly and destructive earthquake, inna lillahi wa-inna ilayhi raji`un, shows that he lacks the temperament of a leader who is supposed to represent the values of his society not his personal impulses and sectarian biases.

We say secterian bias because it is clear thzt Erdogan is willing to make peace with all former enemies, yet he resists making peace with the Syrian government and the only reason we see is because Assad is not a Sunni Muslim, he is seen by sectarian leader as a person who belongs to an inferior sect ruling over the majority-Sunni country. That is why only another sectarian nation-state, Qatar refuses to deal with the Syrian government, prompting a renouned journalist to write a public letter to the emir, we share it here because it highlights the same issues addressed in this editorial.

His Highness Sheikh “Tamim bin Hamad,” this is an open letter to public opinion and before God Almighty, from a crushed and overpowering Arab citizen to Your Highness. Perhaps you will hear these words emanating from a heart squeezed by grief and pain over a nation that is being written off from the map of influence, and is living in the worst stages of an era of deterioration.

Your Highness: Syria, which was hit by a devastating earthquake that left thousands of victims and tens of thousands of afflicted, displaced and wounded, is living the tragedy of the century, and its people are groaning under the weight of a double catastrophe after years of war and siege. Millions in Syria are below the poverty line, ravaged by poverty, hunger, destitution and cold.. Children, women, the elderly and decent families Mastoura has become homeless or breadwinner. You may be aware of this through reports that are supposed to reach you.

Many countries of the world, led by Arab and Islamic countries, have come to the aid and relief with the commendable capabilities they can, and the countries of Qatar have lagged behind in that. I know that you are helping our brothers in Turkey, and this is a humanitarian work that you bear witness to. And you help our brothers in northern Syria where the Syrian government has no control, and this is a blessed act, but excluding areas such as Aleppo, Latakia, Jableh and Hama because they are located in the areas of the Syrian government or the “regime” as you call it from relief, and withholding any sympathy for them or conveying their suffering, or even condolence with them . Allow me to say that this approach is wrong, and it harms the State of Qatar, its reputation and its future, more than it harms the Syrians at a painful but fleeting moment in the course of history.

  The human tendency does not differentiate between one person and another on the basis of where he resides. Arab brotherhood, Arab blood, magnanimity, originality, and Arab honor necessitate transcendence over political differences and fear to save simple people, brothers, and human beings anywhere, regardless of the political dispute with the government or the difference in orientations. The State of Qatar must help the brothers and the Syrian people in Aleppo, Lattakia, Jableh and Hama, just like its donation to help the Syrian people in Idlib, Jandiris and other regions of the north.

If there is a political disagreement and a rift between you and the Syrian leadership, then let it not be, and no one will ask you to change your political orientations according to what you see as serving the interests of your country. But at the same time, there is no political dispute between the Syrian and Qatari peoples. It is a common sympathy and pain, and I am confident that your Qatari people are in pain for every Syrian and do not differentiate between those who sit in the open in Aleppo or those who sleep in the cold in Idlib. The entire Syrian people is afflicted and needs the embrace of its Arab brothers. Syria has always been the first to extend a helping hand to all Arabs in their tribulations and misfortunes, and it has never been stingy or hesitated for a single moment in offering even lives for Arab causes.

Your Highness: Perhaps you know or have heard about the gift of the Syrians in all cities, as well as the Arabs and Muslims in all countries, to defend Qatar in the face of bullying, racism and confusion practiced by Western countries during Qatar's hosting of the World Cup. They gave you love and sympathy, and this is more valuable than all the treasures and money of the earth. Hundreds of thousands of Syrian activists in Damascus, Homs, Aleppo and other cities did not say that there is a political dispute that necessitates refraining from defending our brothers who achieve a common achievement that raises the heads of all Arabs.

The Syrian people are a dear and dignified people, full of dignity, dignity and pride. A word of sympathy and consolation. Watching the Arab brothers flock to them and their planes landing in their country is more important to them than bread, medicine, housing and money.

I know this people very well, and I know that Syria, the homeland, will not be burned or drowned. This is Syria, the mother of every Arab. The homeland is for those who have no homeland. Syria is the holy land, the kind and warm people, and the civilization steeped in history. An earthquake, war, or disaster cannot erase it.

Your Highness, deafen your ear, even for a moment, to the voices of blind hatred, the voices that filled the space around you with calls to stop and cut aid to Syria in the most difficult disaster it is going through, and sayings that the Syrian regime benefits from the disaster and that aid saves the regime from the siege. The truth is that the children of Syria are languishing under the rubble and in the open.

These voices are now insulting to Qatar and to the image of its peaceful, loving and open people. Those voices that were stripped of humanity and blinded by hatred, blackness of the heart and sickness of the mind.

Deaf ears to the calls not to help the afflicted because they are in the “regime” areas. These are shameful and disgraceful calls, and hear the voice of the Arab blood that flows in your veins. Hear the voice of the facts that indicate that there are Arabs and non-Arabs. Come to the differences, renounce hatred and break the siege for the sake of Arab and human brotherhood, from Egypt to Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Jordan, Iraq, Algeria, Tunisia, Sudan, Mauritania, Libya, Lebanon, the Sultanate of Oman and Bahrain, while Qatar seems isolated, measuring its humanity with narrow political calculations. A victim from the opposition area, and this is a victim from the regime area.”

Your Highness the Emir: It is not too late, and the State of Qatar can suspend the political dispute, and rush now to Syria to offer a helping hand and assistance, or at least offer condolences for the victims, just like its Arab and Muslim brothers and the free countries of the world. Your blessed efforts to help in Turkey and northern Syria remain incomplete if they do not include assistance to all those affected by the earthquake, wherever they are or reside, and whatever the circumstances and differences. Your position is not permissible humanly, morally, legally and patriotic before God and the court of history and peoples.

  One day, Arab brotherhood and one Arab blood will be victorious, so Your Highness contributed to making this day soon, and do not make sisterly Qatar a prisoner of a chorus of sick people who live on differences and are addicted to insults, grudges and provoking division.

This is the message of an Arab citizen who has no power or power and only possesses the word of truth and seeks nothing but God's approval.

Kamal Khalaf

Writer and Journalist

How and why do US-Trained Afghan Troops, ISIS, and Syrian Rebels end up Fighting on either side in Ukraine?

How and why do US-Trained Afghan Troops, ISIS, and Syrian Rebels end up Fighting on either side in Ukraine?

    Monday, February 13, 2023   No comments

In the 1970s and 80s, the US and Saudi Arabia worked together to radicalize, train, and equip fighters in Afghanistan with the hope that these fighters who combine a sectarian zeal and military skill will bring down the Soviet Union. The religious sectarian zeal empowered these fighters to attack the US on September 11, 2001.

Ten years later, in 2011, the US, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia trained and supplied fighters who were trained or inspired by the Afghan rebels to bring down the Syrian government. Russia stepped in in 2015 and reversed the gains made by al-Qaeda and ISIL troops.

Since 2002, the US military and intelligence started to train and arm an elite force in Afghanistan, some 30,000 fighters. Twenty years later, the US pulled out of Afghanistan and left that country in the hands of Taliban, the same government the US dislodged in 2002. Most of these elite Afghani troops were left behind. We are now learning that many of them, about 2/3 of them, are recruited to fight with Russia in Ukraine, the country that has received nearly $100 billion in aid and military equipment to help it fight the Russians.

 Over the twenty years since it invaded Afghanistan in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the United States has built, equipped, and trained the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces. In order to enable these forces to fight the Taliban, which allied with al-Qaeda at the time, Washington spent nearly 90 billion dollars, until there were between 20-30 thousand Afghan special forces as a military elite that the Afghan government was proud of being trained by the Navy Special Forces. American, known as "SEAL", British Air Force Special Forces.

And with the start of implementing its decision to withdraw from Afghanistan in August 2021, Washington tried to transfer these soldiers and officers out of the country on the grounds that they were at risk from the Taliban movement, which took over the reins of government. For this, the United States established a huge air bridge, which was described as the largest operation of its kind in the history of the United States, and through which Washington was able to evacuate about 130,000 Afghans and foreigners from the country. However, the US airlift only transferred a few hundred senior Afghan Special Forces officers, leaving the bulk of them face to face with the advancing Taliban. About 1,000 Afghan special forces were evacuated to the United States, while a few others managed to reach Europe and Turkey, while about 20,000 of them were left behind inside Afghanistan.

Soon, these people changed their loyalties, and some of them fought in the ranks of the opposition groups, such as the National Resistance Front, the anti-Taliban political and military alliance led by Ahmed Shah Massoud, and took the Panjshir Valley as a center for its operations, and even a few of them resorted to fighting in the ranks of the Islamic State in Khorasan Province, While a large number of them fled to neighboring countries, especially Iran and Pakistan, where they are awaiting asylum in a Western country due to their previous close ties to the US alliance.

With thousands of former Afghan soldiers and officers flocking to Iran, many American fears have been raised about transferring their unique knowledge of US army tactics and training to its arch-rival Iran, which poses a major security threat to the United States. It is easy for them to transfer their institutional knowledge of the US military, including the mechanics of collecting sensitive intelligence information, to Iran or other enemies of the United States if they communicate with them. And as stated in a report by Representative Michael McCaul, a Republican member of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the US Congress, the catastrophe of evacuating Afghans a year and a half ago endangered US intelligence assets, including the Afghan special forces, as “(they) could pose a threat to US security.” If they are coerced or recruited to work with one of Washington's adversaries, including international terrorist groups such as the Islamic State (in Khorasan) or countries such as China, Russia and Iran."

Events quickly proved that the fears of American officials were correct, as it began to become clear in the past few months that the Afghan Special Forces, which previously carried out advanced raids against the Taliban and bore the brunt of the American war on the Islamic movement, some of its men moved to fight on the side of Russia, the enemy. The arch-enemy of the Americans and the West as a whole these days, after hundreds of them received generous offers that included guaranteeing a safe life for them and their families, as well as obtaining Russian citizenship.

These efforts were led by the "Wagner" special combat group close to the Kremlin and made up of mercenaries fighting for Russia, which plays a prominent role in the war against Ukraine. Moscow hopes to draw on the experiences of former Afghan officers, after the battles over the past year showed that the Russian officers did not perform well on the battlefield against the Western-backed Ukrainian resistance. Media sources have confirmed that about a third of the former Afghan Special Forces are already fighting for Russia.

Meanwhile, as reported previously, ISIS fighters have relocted from Syria and Iraq to fight on the side of US supported Ukrainian forces. Recent Associated Press reporting (see AP Photos, below) depicted ISIS Black patches on the unforms of Ukrainian fighters.

  

Erdogan's advisor: Turkiye needs full control over Syria's Aleppo to solve refugee issue

Erdogan's advisor: Turkiye needs full control over Syria's Aleppo to solve refugee issue

    Thursday, January 12, 2023   No comments

Erdogan’s desire to unload Syrian refugees and address the emerging autonomous Kurdish state along its border with Syria is forcing him to rush for a solution that would involve reconciliation with the Syrian government.

In the past few weeks alone, the Turkish leader sent out his defense minister and head of intelligence to meet their Syrian counterparts in Russia. Turkish leaders then announced plans to for the foreign ministers to meet soon to pave the way for a historical summit between Erdogan and Assad. All these changes are driven by Erdogan’s fear that economic hardships, volatile border with Syria, and large Syrian population in Turkey will limit his chances of winning another term and derail his party’s ambitions to keep a decisive plurality in the parliament.

However, given the role Erdogan played in supporting the Syrian armed factions who wanted, and still want, to overthrow the Syrian government, neither Assad is eager to meet him and many of his party leaders and advisors are unwilling to give up their dream of Syria controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies. This split among Turkey’s Islamists is reminding observers of their ideology-driven campaign to fuel a war in Syria designed to overthrow the government no matter what the human and economic costs. Nothing more telling of this ideological and sectarian impulse than the chain of events that lead to the recent revelations that Turkey should aim to control Aleppo and use it to resettle Syrian refugees instead of rebuilding the Syrian-Turkish relations to what it was before the so-called Arab Spring.

Immediately after the announcement of the expected meeting between the Syrian and Turkish foreign ministers, Qatar’s Aljazeera publishes a long piece by an Islamist commentator and professor at Qatar university floating the idea of Turkey’s control over Aleppo and rejecting Turkish reconciliation with the Syrian government. The article was picked by a long time advisor the Erdogan and his party and he made the same point an interview with a Turkish outlet. Given how skeptical the Syrian government is from this about-face from Erdogan, it can easily use this statement to cancel the proposed meeting and reject Erdogan’s courting of Assad.

Aware of the problem, it was revealed that the Turkish foreign minister was very upset with the advisor’s statements and perhaps that is what forced the advisor to appear on Arab media outlets and explain that what he said was a personal opinion based on an article that he read in the media (a clear reference to aljazeera’s piece).

These events revisit the events and actors that promoted and benefited the so-called Arab Spring, including the role of the Qatari government and its media influencer, Aljazeera, the Muslim Brotherhood, Salafism, and Turkey who wanted to create a middle east to their liking that resulted in destroyed communities in Syria, Libya, Yemen, and Iraq and the displacement of millions of people—in addition to the nearly one million people killed in these countries as a result of the geopolitical ambitions of Turkey, Qatar, UAE, and the Muslim Brotherhood.

______

Here are the background stories for this event:

With the opposition accusing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of not being serious in dealing with the Syrian file and developing an urgent plan for reconciliation with Damascus to return Syrian refugees to their country, Yasin Aktay's proposal, Erdogan's advisor, came to confirm the validity of doubts about the latter's intentions and accounts for Syria.

 

Aktay, who was a very close friend of the late Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi who was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, said, "To ensure the safe return of Syrian refugees to their country, the city of Aleppo must be placed under Turkish administration for a transitional period."

 

Aktay pointed out, in his interview with the pro-President Erdogan channel, "Olca", to "the importance of dialogue between Turkey and the Syrian regime." But thanks to the Iranian and Russian support, the Assad regime was able to control it, after carrying out very large massacres. And had it not been for Turkey's intervention at the time, the regime would have carried out bloody massacres greater than it."

 

He added, "Therefore, Turkey must have a role in achieving security in the city and its environs, so that we can return one and a half million, or even two million, refugees to the city voluntarily, which will not be achieved unless a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis is reached with the participation of the people." Syrian".

 

Aktay's speech aroused the interest of the media and social networks, which said that he revealed the true intentions of President Erdogan by inviting President Putin to bring him together with President Assad after the recent meeting of the Syrian and Turkish defense ministers in Moscow, in the presence of the Russian defense minister.

 

Some saw his words as a message from Ankara to the Syrian opposition with all its factions, including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, after the information that talked about Ankara's efforts to convince it of the feasibility of a possible reconciliation with Damascus, which is what this opposition started after meeting its leaders, Foreign Minister Mouloud Jawish. oglu last week.

 

Journalist Muhammad Ali Gullar recalled "the slogan raised by nationalist circles at the beginning of the Turkish intervention in northern Syria, when they talked about annexing this region to Turkey, as it was part of the map of the National Pact of 1920, just as Aleppo declared the 82nd state of present-day Turkey."

 

It seems that Aktay's statements and the media's interaction with them will remain the talk of the Turkish street during the next stage, as long as the Syrian file, with all its main and subheadings, will be the semi-main topic of the upcoming election campaigns, after it became clear that this file, especially the issue of Syrian refugees in Turkey, will affect the decision of the Turkish voter when He will vote for President Erdogan or his potential rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

 

This explains why the security authorities raided a gathering center for Syrian refugees in a suburb of Istanbul, whom the Republican People's Party was preparing to deport to Syria with their consent, and the aforementioned authorities transferred them to an unknown location so that Kilicdaroglu would not meet them before they left Istanbul towards the Syrian border.

 

All this while betting on information that was reported a while ago about Syrian President Assad's hesitation in reconciliation with Erdogan before the upcoming elections, which may be in mid-May, at a time when Russian and Gulf pressures continue on the two sides to achieve this reconciliation as quickly as possible.

 Journalist Omar Odamish predicted, "The image that will gather Erdogan and President Assad will affect the psyche of the voter, as the Turkish president will tell him that reconciliation with Damascus is necessary to eliminate terrorism, by which he means the PKK and its Syrian arm, the People's Protection Units, without mentioning the Syrian opposition militants." They are terrorists for Damascus."

 Opposition circles ruled out that Erdogan would meet the Syrian demands, and said that this would be after the elections and not before, given that it would constitute a security crisis in northern Syria and the Turkish interior, especially if Ankara failed to convince Jabhat Tahrir al-Sham of the importance and necessity of this reconciliation, including the war together against the militias. Kurdish forces east of the Euphrates, in exchange for advantages and privileges that Turkey recognizes for HTS fighters and leaders, which the media has been talking about for some time about its heated dialogue with Washington.

 The information talks about Washington increasing its military support for the Kurdish People's Protection Units to face any upcoming war in the region and against the Syrian and Turkish armies in the event of a joint reconciliation.

 President Erdogan seeks to justify this reconciliation to his followers and supporters by talking about the need to eliminate terrorism in Turkey and northern Syria, by which he means the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and its Syrian arm, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, which in turn entered the line of domestic politics in Turkey when it announced the co-chair of the Peoples’ Democratic Party , the political wing of the PKK, the party's decision to participate in the upcoming elections with its own candidate, which puts the opposition "Nation Alliance" face to face with a new crisis in competition with Erdogan, who may prevail over the opposition candidate unless he has the support of the Kurds.

 

This account did not prevent the Supreme Constitutional Court from considering the issue of banning the activity of the Peoples’ Democratic Party before the end of this week, after it froze 3 days ago the aid provided by the treasury, according to the election law, which orders it to support the electoral campaigns of all political parties that have parliamentary blocs, i.e. on At least 20 seats.

 

All these complex data suggest the next stage in Turkish domestic politics, as long as it is affected by the future of the relationship with Damascus, for many surprises in terms of Turkish-Syrian relations, which will be under direct influence from Moscow, Tehran and the Gulf capitals represented by Abu Dhabi, which the Turkish media says is " It is ready to pay billions of dollars to the Syrian and Turkish sides in exchange for their agreement to the final reconciliation, according to its mood and the mood of its allies, who are many and contradictory.

 

Times: Banning alcohol gave women the chance to enjoy the World Cup without hassle

Times: Banning alcohol gave women the chance to enjoy the World Cup without hassle

    Friday, December 02, 2022   No comments

There is no questions that explicit and implicit bias against Arabic and Islamic societies and their values systems were present during this FIFA World Cup hosted by Qatar. In addition to the bigotry expressed by German politicians and players, mainstream western media focused on promoting their own rights agenda without respect for the laws and cultures of host nations. 

To put things in perspective, imagine yourself going to person who is hosting you in their home, and instead of enjoying their company and hospitality, you decide to protest, while in their home, the fact that they are running a dry home require you to take your shoes before you step in their living room. Yet, that is exactly how some Western leaders and players behaved while in Qatar.

However, it seems that if they listen to some members of their social groups, especially those historically marginalized, they might end up see some of the benefits of creating an inclusive space that is not built on propaganda and identity politics.

A report by the British newspaper The Times quoted testimonies of a group of English cheerleaders who accompanied their country's national team to Doha in order to encourage the "Three Lions", confirming that they were not subjected to any harassment, and they also considered that the decision of the Qatari authorities to prevent alcoholic beverages during the matches contributed to a certain extent. Great in that, and they described the Qatar World Cup stadiums as more suitable for women to watch the matches compared to what is happening in their country.

Between truth and deception

British young woman Ellie Moloson, 19, is leading a wide campaign in her country, calling her the slogan "It's her game too" in order to make football stadiums more welcoming to women, because of the harassment they are exposed to during matches, and before she came to Qatar to support her country's national team, she felt a lot. She was so worried that she asked her father to accompany her to Doha for their protection.

However, Moloson admitted in a statement to the British newspaper that she discovered that she "did not need to disturb her father, because the World Cup stadiums in Qatar are different from what they are in her country."

"I must say that coming here was a real shock for me," she said in the report prepared by journalist Davey Brown.

The report considered that the Qatar stadiums provided a more suitable atmosphere for women than those in England, and the young Moloson - a student from Nottingham - admitted that she also had preconceived notions before going to Qatar, "but the reality was nothing like this, I did not suffer from any One of the inconveniences I experienced in England," she said, adding, "I don't know how they achieved it, but it's a great environment to experience."

For his part, Moloson's 49-year-old father, who works as a teacher, explained that he came to Qatar with the aim of taking care of his daughter, but he admitted that he discovered that he did not need to do so because of what he discovered in her.

Qatari Minister to the West: LGBT people can visit our country but don't try to change our beliefs

Qatari Minister to the West: LGBT people can visit our country but don't try to change our beliefs

    Wednesday, November 30, 2022   No comments

The Minister of State for Energy Affairs in Qatar, Saad Al-Kaabi, told the German newspaper “Bild” that members of the LGBT community can go to Qatar to watch the World Cup soccer matches, but the West cannot “dictate” to Qataris what they should believe.

Relations between Qatar and Germany have been troubled recently.

The German Minister of the Interior, Nancy Weser, put the “One Love” badge that supports gays in the match that her country played against Japan last week, and criticized the human rights record in Qatar, but this week Germany concluded a deal to import liquefied natural gas from

In his statements, which were published by the German newspaper "Bild" today, the Qatari minister said about the LGBT community: "If they want to visit Qatar, we have no problem with that."

But he said the West wants to "dictate what it wants" to Qatar, which considers same-sex relations illegal.

He added, "If you want to change me so that I say that I believe in the LGBT community and that my family should be gay and that I accept homosexuality in my country and change my laws and Islamic teachings in order to please the West, then this is unacceptable."