Qatari emir: Israel wants to destroy Gaza, has abandoned hostages, seeks to ‘impose its will’ on Arab neighbors

Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani says Israel’s “treacherous attack” earlier this month that targeted the political leaders of Hamas in Doha was an attempt to derail the Gaza ceasefire negotiations.

In his address to the UN General Assembly in New York, he slams the violation of Qatar’s sovereignty and reiterates his denunciation of Israel’s “rogue act… of state terrorism,” accusing Israel of a policy of political assassinations.

“They visit our country and plot to attack it,” he says of Israel. “They negotiate with delegations and plot to assassinate the members of the negotiation teams. It is difficult to cooperate with such a mentality that does not respect the most minimal standards of cooperation. It is impossible,” he says. “They consider negotiations the continuation of war by other means and a way to delude the Israeli public opinion.”

“If the release of Israeli hostages is [contingent on] the end of war, the government of Israel is abandoning the notion of releasing the hostages,” he charges.

“Their goal is to destroy Gaza so that it is unlivable and where no one can study or receive treatment,” he claims of the Israeli government. Israel is, in other words, aiming to “end the viability of the Gaza Strip, to displace its population.”

“The Israeli leader wants to continue war. He believes in what is called Greater Israel,” he says of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “He believes that war is an opportunity to expand settlements and to change the status quo in the holy sites” on the Temple Mount. “He also plots for attacks in the West Bank.”

“Israel is not a democratic country surrounded by enemies, but in fact it is an enemy to its surrounding neighbors.”

Israel is “engaged in a genocide, and its leader is proud of preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state, and he promises that such a state will never be established, and he takes pride in preventing peace with the Palestinians, and that he will prevent such peace in the future,” Thani charges.

“Israel is surrounded by states either who have signed a peace agreement with it, or are committed to the Arab Peace Initiative. But Israel does not make do with truces and settlements. It desires to impose its will on its surrounding Arab neighbors,” he says.

“Everyone who opposes its will is either antisemitic or a terrorist. Even Israel’s allies realize this fact and reject it,” he states.

He says Qatar will continue to engage in diplomacy even when its enemies “find it easier to use weapons,” and denounces disinformation campaigns against his country.

He applauds the tide of recognitions of the state of Palestine, and encourages other countries to follow suit.