Mideast situation/Palestine question – Letter from Qatar

Letter dated 30 July 2001 from the Permanent Representative of Qatar

to the United Nations addressed to the President of the General Assembly

I have the honour to enclose herewith a letter from Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al-Thani, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Qatar, concerning the outcome of the emergency meeting of the States members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference at the level of Foreign Minister, held in Doha, State of Qatar, on 26 May 2001, on the critical and dangerous situation in the Palestinian occupied territories and the persistence of the Israeli authorities in their continuous attacks against the Palestinian people, with the request that the present letter and its annex be circulated as a document of the General Assembly under agenda items 40 and 41.

(Signed) Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser

Ambassador

Permanent Representative

Annex to the letter dated 30 July 2001 from the Permanent Representative

of Qatar to the United Nations addressed to the President of the General Assembly

[Original: Arabic]

The ministers for foreign affairs of the States members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference have agreed to inform you of the outcome of the emergency meeting they held on 26 May 2001 at Doha to consider possible means of halting the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel having greatly escalated its abusive practices against them.

Fearing that the security situation may deteriorate further, become irreparable and pose a danger of the entire region and wishing the Palestinian people to be protected from Israel’s grievous methods of repression, the 56 member States decided to urge the Security Council to meet and to adopt resolutions that would provide international protection for the Palestinian people and avert the dangers of brutal Israeli aggression against it. Such protection would calm the situation and thus permit the resumption of negotiations with a view to devising a just and comprehensive settlement that would restore peace to all parts of the Middle East region.

The participants also called for the establishment of an international criminal tribunal to try those responsible for the war crimes that have been committed against the Palestinians, which are to be regarded as crimes against humanity whose victims are innocent citizens living under foreign occupation.

They urged that Israel should be required to pay reparations for the material losses resulting from its aggression against the occupied Palestinian territories, such as the destruction of urban and rural installations, as well as for the many Palestinian lives that have been lost, the serious wounds that have been inflicted and the permanent disabilities that have been caused, as has been the case in the past when compensation has been paid to victims of aggression in similar cases.

Since the major priorities of the United Nations include the maintenance of international peace and security and defence of the rights of all peoples to self-determination, I request you to do your utmost within the scope of the powers entrusted to you to assist the Palestinians in securing its legitimate right to self-determination and independence as recognized by the General Assembly in some dozens of its resolutions over many decades.

(Signed) Hamad Bin Jassem Bin Jabr Al Thani

Minister for Foreign Affairs

Chairman of the emergency meeting of ministers for

foreign affairs of the States members of the

Organization of the Islamic Conference