Qatar reversing stance: Mecca summits’ communiques reflect US policy on Iran

Qatar has reversed its stance regarding the GCC and Arab League summits’ final communiques days after the end of the summits in Mecca, saying that the communiques reflected America’s policies on Iran.

In an interview with Qatari owned channel, al-Jazeera, Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said that the communiques reflected Washington’s policies on Iran and not a policy which took into consideration Iran as a neighbour.

Al-Thani was also quoted by Qatari funded AlAraby TV on Sunday as saying that it had reservations regarding the communiques of both the GCC and Arab League emergency summits held in Mecca on May 30 as some items “contradict Qatar’s foreign policy.”

Al-Thani was also quoted by AlAraby TV as saying that the GCC and the Arab League emergency summits ignored major issues in the region like the Palestinian issue and the war in Libya and Yemen.

The final communique of the Arab League emergency summit emphasizied that the Arab States seek to restore security stability in the region and that the only true way is for all states in the region to respect the principles of good neighborliness, refraining from the use of force, interfering in the internal affairs of States and violating their sovereignty. Also, that the conduct of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the region is contrary to those principles and undermines the requirements of confidence and thus directly and dangerously threatens the security and stability in the region, stressing that the cooperation relations with Arab countries and the Islamic Republic of Iran must be based on the principle of good-neighborliness, not interfering in the internal affairs of States and respecting their sovereignty.

The communiques also condemned the continued Iranian support for the Houthi anti-government militias in Yemen.

As for Syria and Palestine, the final communique of the Arab League emergency summit denounced the Iranian interference in the Syrian crisis and its implications for Syria’s future, sovereignty, security, independence, national unity, and territorial integrity, and that such intervention does not serve the exerted efforts to settle the Syrian crisis according to the content of the Geneva Convention 1 and the relevant international resolutions. On the issue of Palestine, the main Arab issue, the summit affirmed its adherence to the resolutions of the 29th Arab summit in Dhahran (Jerusalem Summit) and the resolutions of the 30th Arab summit in Tunisia.”

The GCC emergency summit’s final communique emphasized the need for Iran to spare the region the dangers of war, abiding by international laws and conventions, stop interfering in the internal affairs of the countries of the region, stop supporting terrorist groups and militias, and stop threatening the security of maritime navigation.