Cable television companies. It is brought to you by your cable satellite provider. In the middle east come six arab countries have cut ties qatar. Tter lastly, they spoke about the relations with animators. This is just about an hour. Bonjour. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. That deserves a round of applause. [applause] im the president of the World Affairs council, washington, dc. On behalf of the council i welcome you to tonights ambassador series. We are delighted, we have eight of our Board Members here tonight. We think them for their service. Without you, these programs would not be taking place. Thank you all, very much. Many thanks to our Strategic Partners at the Ronald Reagan building and International Trade center for their wonderful hospitality, and providing us with this beautiful venue to hold our public programs. If the earlybird gets the first worm, than those that got here early tonight got the first 120 seats. We have another 8000 people downstairs in a spillover room who are watching tonights broadcast on a large screen. We are also very fortunate tonight that our events are being filmed for nationwide to should be should on our own Television ShowWorld Affairs today, which airs at 3 00 p. M. Today. Sunday afternoon. They are on youtube, facebook, linkedin, twitter, and other digital platforms. In addition, tonights program is being live streamed to a u. S. And global audience and will be immediately available on youtube. It will also be broadcasted by thank you to the ceo of the National Press club for providing us with his Live Streaming services tonight. Our event tonight focuses on the state of qatar. Its relationship with the United States, and the role it plays in the persian gulf region. And the nations activities as a member of the gulf cooperation council. Qatar has been ruled by the honey family since the mid19th century. The flag of qatar contains nine serrated edges that separate the colored and the white portions. They signify qatars inclusion as the ninth member of the reconcile emirates of the persian gulf at the conclusion of the qatari british treaty in 1916. The colored portion of the flag, known as the qatar maroon, acknowledgment is the islands production of purple dye. The white symbolizes peace. Originally known for being a backwater who was known for diving, qatar made itself known to the world when it declared independence in 1971. On centralized its economy relied on oil and natural gas production. In 1990 five qatar announced the series of sweeping economic and political reforms. This included the funding and the founding of the pan arabs satellite news network, al jazeera in 1996, a broadcast worldwide. In economic surplus enabled qatar to rebrand Qatar Airways and support the education city. It recognize stateoftheart academic oasis. It hosts schools from the United States, britain, france and qatar. This includes our friends at council, we should inform you that we have had a long and valued relationship with the state of qatar during the 38 years since our founding. The qatar foundation, both the recipient of our 2014 Global Education award that was accepted on behalf of the foundation. The ambassadors of qatar have participated in our Embassy Series and ambassador programs, and support it our annual Global Education gala. Qatars population is, question, anybody know . You just googled it, out of bounds. It is to million people. At of that number, 11 are native qataris. 88. 4 are nonqataris. Bilateral relations between the United States and qatar are strong. They host the u. S. Military central command. They have 11,000 americans deployed in qatar. They actively deployed operations against the islamic state. The United States serves as qatars largest foreign investor. These include aircraft, machinery, vehicles, medical instruments and agricultural products. Qatar is an active member of the u. N. , world bank and counsel. It has also been selected to host the 2022 fifa world cup. [applause] now to our distinguished guest. His excellency Sheikh Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani is a career credential. Ambassador has previously served for three years as the ambassador to france. He has also served as qatars permanent representative to the u. N. He has to her the Qatari Mission to the eu in brussels and served as qatari official liaison to nato. He is a graduate of of american university. Received his masters degree in International Relations in 2004. Tonight, please to introduce another friend to our World Affairs council, family, ledger, managing editor of usa today as our discussant for this evening. Donna has served as both an editor and reporter for breaking news. Her assignments have covered everything from domestic and international crimes. The war on terror national disaster. Donna is a past president of the National Press club. At university of maryland. We are deeply honored to welcome the ambassador to the world asairs council d. C. Podium part of the 2017 ambassador series. Good evening. Remarkable, it did a next a job of organizing this event. To for unwavering commitment education and providing a platform for open dialogue. If you had been following the news from the region, i am sure saudill aware have imposed an illegal political, economic against my country. It decided overnight to close down all borders and air spaces. The flow of food and medicine during the holy month of ramadan. These steps are not enough. Apart theyes recall their citizens, tearing families apart, mothers from the children, wives from their husbands. And to silence people from speaking out against the popular their kryptonian and unpopular actions, they have imposed laws that threaten people with 15 year jail sentence. This is distressing. Saudi arabia, the uae and bahrain are toying with the lives of thousands of people. Im sure you are wondering what instigated the inhumane and illegal actions. This all began when individuals of the united emirates decided to launch a cyber attack against a qatar news agency. During this attack, a fabricated statement was published. This fabricated statement was broadcasted in saudi and news outlets even after the rejection even after qatars retraction and the statement declaring it was false. Its crucial to note that qatar media was blocked in this country hours before the cyber attack. Ensuring people cannot access the truth. This carefully orchestrated cyber attack was used to justify their illegal and inhumane work blockade against the people of qatar. One of the main questions i have been asking is why, why have the locators blockaders taken such measures to silence qatar. Unfortunately, the countries have never revealed the true intentions behind these actions. They have never shared their supports and concerns with us nor given us a chance to address problems they may have. Three weeks after forcing the unwanted blockade and after pressure from the United States and the International Community, they submitted the list of socalled demands. The 13 demands were not reasonable or actionable as the United States had hoped. Instead these demands would have forced qatar to hand over individuals to be tortured. Reduce our defense capabilities. This regard and go against international law. Outsource our fallen worldly outsource our Foreign Policy and sign an open check to the countries where they describe as compensation. They are demanding qatar build pay compensation to bail them out from losses due to their failed policies. What these countries are demanding is a surrender of our sovereignty at the price of defending the siege. I like to draw your attention to what i believe are the true motives behind this aggression. In a statement the saudi ambassador to jordan said two weeks ago, we have been patient, we have been patient for 21 years with a country that is smaller than a neighborhood. What happened 20 years ago that has tried the patience for so long. It was in 1996 that they began that that qatar began that qatar began its transformation. This when we decided to focus on development by investing in our own people in building a knowledgebased economy. We abolished censorship and created al jazeera as a platform for free media and free speech. It is when we introduce social and political reform. It is quickly empowered women, it is when we decided for policy should focus on mediation rather than confrontation as a solution to challenges facing our region. As mark twain has said, there are few things harder to put up with that the annoyance of a good example. It is worth highlighting the transformation were effective as it is worth highlighting the transformation in qatar was confusing to certain government. A saudi woman cannot understand why a country with a similar social background, qatar, with lincoln drive but in saudi she cannot women can drive, but in saudi she cannot. So aside from the shortcomings they have accused us of terrorism. These unsubstantiated actions are just a smokescreen created to infringe upon the sovereignty and independence. Our International Partners know that qatar is relentless in its fight against terrorism. We will be a steadfast partner to the United States in combating this problem in the fight against isis. Our efforts have not gone unrecognized. The state Department Reports that the United States and qatar maintain a Strong Partnership in the fight against terrorism. After signing in mou with United States eight within aim of establishing a disabling finance , secretary tillerson was the first to respond to the challenge to stop terrorism. Its just as much of a threat to qatar and every other nation and that is why our resolve to fight this threat is unwavering. Terrorist are made, not born. That is why we have developed a holistic approach to combat terrorism and that is why we have two american bases in qatar. A military base which everyone is familiar with, but more importantly, an education base. By creating an education hub in qatar that includes some of the best american institutions from Georgetown University to Northwestern University the spread American Values we are combating the root causes of terrorism, hopelessness and lack of education. The blockading countries should remember that when they join and pointed the finger at qatar, Three Fingers are pointing back to them. These countries accuse us of supporting terrorism yet it was saudi citizens behind 9 11 attacks. A saudi who has been scrutinized by the International Community. For the spreading of extremism. It is the uae listed as the state department as a country of primary concern and state that primary concern for the state Department Money Laundering and financial crimes report. The destabilizing the region that a society whose under increased international and u. S. Condemnation for their attack on human on yemen, causing 70 million to be on the point of starvation. For their destabilizing role in libya. It is egypt who has abused their current status from the u. S. Security council to put a hold on the u. S. Request to add u. S. Saudi arabia to the u. S. Sanctions list. What these countries have done is made any act supporting their status quo terrorism. A woman driving a car in saudi arabia is tried in the terrace court. Thats the terrorists court. Individuals calling for social reform in the uae is a social terrorists. This is the work that needs to be done for counterterrorism in the region. The crisis will not be resolved by suppressing media and opposing viewpoints. Instead we must all of our concerns on the table and have it has and factual discussion about the issues affecting our region. Unfortunately the blockaded country have refused to show any genuine want for dialogue. Blockade has tarnished the eyes of all the countries in the middle east. It has undermined the fight against terrorism. It has torn families apart and silenced voices. The blockade has also made qatar stronger, resilient and more united. It has helped us diversify our economy and forge new partnerships. Thank you again for giving me this platform to share my humble views of this ongoing crisis. Ok, i guess i will start off with a few questions and then we will take questions from the audience. The reasons behind the blockade, you have said that you think the cyber attack and the remarks you think it was the reforms. That was 21 years ago, these reforms have been underway for a long time. When you think really prompted this reaction, Immediate Reaction . Why now . Thank you very much for this question. As i mentioned in my speech, this was an attempt from me personally to try to understand the motive behind this. The only example given was by the saudi ambassador in jordan to try to understand where they are coming from. The resentment that has been there for 20 years. What happened last month is obviously something had been planned for some time. We were part of the summit and it was a successful summit. We signed on the establishment of counterterrorism centers. None of the countries at the summit raised any concern with us. We were still puzzled on the motivations, but i tried to talk about this, to analyze from their speeches what exactly was going on. It could be that qatar is trying to promote a policy based on mediation and Mutual Understanding versus a policy of confrontation. That does not give us any clear answers for why. Have to thought at all about possible economic motivations. Have you thought about possible economic motivations . For example natural gas deal with iran which may be a threat to saudi arabia. Maybe it is useful to give a background of information on what you just mentioned. The relation with iran and line of the gulf cooperation council, in fact the uae has more relations with iran than we do. Once we have as a relation with iran is we share natural gas fields. 2530 of the energy going to 2530 of the energy going to the world is coming from there. We need to have more mediation with iran to understand how they relationship should be dealt with. I dont think that has anything iransith iran relationship and qatar. 18 clicks a week to go to tehran. They have more investments with them than we do. Isannot understand that iran part of the issue. You mentioned this feud, this bloackade is undermining what the world thinks of the gulf nation, that it is tarnishing the image. Early on in this conflict, you wrote an oped in the wall street journal, and you have repeated some of your remarks today. You mentioned the uae and saudi arabias roles in 9 11. Tomorrow, the uae is going to respond with a documentary that accuses qatar of fostering terrorism. Again, this back and forth, this tarnishing of images. It takes two to tango or in this case five countries to keep going back and forth and tarnishing one another. At what point does qatar have a responsibility to put an end to it by cutting off its remarks and is there a way you can stop the feud . First of all, i was just stating facts. In my wall street journal. Im not trying to tarnish any countrys image. Again, what i have raised our facts. You mentioned, the uae is coming out with a piece on 9 11, a country that already initiated a cyber attack. Some individuals there initiated a cyber attack against qatar. A fabricated story. We need to think twice about anything coming from there. The whole crisis that erupted in the gulf is based on fabricated stories, so everything coming from their side maybe is not a legitimate story. If you keep going back and fourth, how does it end . What was the motivation in bringing up the role in 9 11 if not to provoke them . I was just answering to an article written by the uae portrayor trying to qatar as a terrorist harbor financial toorts terrorists. I just wanted to remind him exactly what the facts are, what is the truth and just to state that he should think twice before accusing people. Explained to us the relationship with iran can you explain a little bit about the relationship with turkey which also seems to rank with the other four countries. The relation with the turkey is a very strong relation. As other countries in the gcc have a strong relation, too. We have Strategic Dialogue so this relationship is in the context of gcc but we have a great and strong relationship, bilateral with turkey. They are a nato member. We have close coordination. That is the context of our relation. Why do you think that relationship with nato bothers the uae and saudi arabia and egypt and bahrain . I really dont know. Maybe this is a question for them to answer. Ok. So, youve have had a whole range of diplomats coming to try to mediate some diplomats from europe, secretary tillerson, most recently, president erdogan. It hasnt been working out, i suppose. Tell us about the negotiations and what are the biggest Sticking Points . So far we have been trying as qatar to be constructive, approach this with a very mature way. Countriesing the four to sit on the table and discuss their grievances. Unfortunately, they have not been receptive. Weve done our best to address which wereed demand very difficult for anyone to accept, but just to show the goodwill of qatar, we have addressed them point by point. Unfortunately, they dismiss them in cairo, in their meeting. We continue to ask the mediators, the state of kuwait to find an alternative and