Qatar Assumes a Leading Role in the Arab World

A champion of diplomatic solutions, Qatar makes a significant contribution to international peace, exerting noticeable effort in mediating between conflicting parties in the region. Facilitating successful rounds of negotiations between warring parties has earned Qatar the trust of the international community.

At the level of Arab states, Qatar hosted the 160th meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Ministerial Council in Doha in June 2024, under the chairmanship of Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, Qatar’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. It was attended by ministers of foreign affairs of GCC member states.

Following extensive discussions on the most essential regional and global issues, several recommendations emerged from the meeting:

• Commending the international conference organized by the Muslim World League in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, under the banner “Building Bridges Between Islamic Sects” in March 2024, aimed at bringing together the followers of different Islamic sects.
• Recommending following up on the GCC-U.S. joint ministerial meeting, held at the headquarters of the GCC General-Secretariat in April 2024, and the meeting of U.S.-GCC Defense Working Groups on Integrated Air and Missile Defense and Maritime Security in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in May 2024.
• Condemning Iran’s continued occupation of three Emirati islands: Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa, and calling for adjudication through direct negotiations or the International Court of Justice. 
• Reaffirming the GCC’s firm stance against all forms of terrorism and extremism, vowing to continue working to dry up terrorist funding and contribute to the global effort to combat terrorism, stressing that tolerance and coexistence among nations and peoples are essential principles on which the GCC was founded.
• Praising the second ministerial meeting of the strategic dialogue between the GCC and the countries of Central Asia, held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in April 2024.
• Underscoring the positive outcome of the High-Level Forum on Security and Regional Cooperation between the European Union and GCC held in April 2024 in Luxembourg.