Doha: The Emir of Qatar Shaikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani said Qatar wants to have a clear agenda from Israel and the United States before attending the upcoming US sponsored peace conference, and said Qatar's ties with the Jewish state are important for peace in the region.
In a one-to-one interview with Charlie Rose, the US interviewer whose show is broadcast across America through the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), the Emir spoke of his recent talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in New York and said the peace conference can succeed only if the Palestinians have a "strong delegation" at the event that would include Hamas members.
"I told her [Tzipi Livni] that we need a clear agenda on what we are going to discuss. We do not want to go there just for a photo opportunity. We need a solid thing to help peace in our region," said the Emir in the 30-minute interview which was posted on the programme's website.
"We want to know what the US agenda for the conference is. And we want to see the points that we are going to discuss. But firstly I want to make sure that on the Palestinian side there is a strong team coming and that means both Fatah and Hamas."
Sit and talk
The Emir said Israel should talk to Hamas because the party is the legitimate representative of the Palestinians as a result of the last elections in the Occupied Territories.
"They [Israel and Hamas] have to sit and talk. And the US and the Western countries have to say this clearly to the Israelis, to Abbas and some other Arab countries. I was clear on this [with Livni]. I have suggested many times to the Israelis to talk to Hamas, because they represent the mass of Palestinians."
With regard to Qatar's ties to Israel, the Emir said that relations with the Jewish state are necessary for the region.
"Our policy is to have friendship with everybody... Israel is in our region and we have to have good ties with the Israelis, although we are having problems because of the Palestinian issue... They [Israel] have a trade office in our country."
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on September 23 invited the Arab League's Follow-Up Committee, of which Qatar is a member, to attend the peace talks.
Shaikh Hamad also touched upon the Iranian nuclear programme, the situation in Iraq and Qatar's democratic reforms.
Elaborating on Iran's nuclear ambitions, he said Qatar, which hosts a military base of the US Central Command, would never allow a US strike on Iran to be carried out from its soil.
"I believe in trying to find a peaceful solution through dialogue, because if this [a US strike on Iran] happens in our region, the world is going to have a war... In Qatar, our position is very clear. We are not going to support any military acts on Iran."
Asked to comment on the situation in Iraq, the Emir called on the United Nations to play a more effective role in Iraq.
"The United Nations could be more active in Iraq. The UN should go there and support democracy in Iraq by bringing all the parties together.
"Many parties are not accepting the US presence and [hence] they are not participating in the democratic process. I think the UN [presence] can be the only solution."
