They posted a discussion about the blockade and begins with remarks from the ambassador to the u. S. [inaudible] [inaudible] [speaking in native language] good evening ladies and gentlemen. That deserves a round of applause. [applause] i am tony, president and ceo of the council. On behalf of the council i welcome you to tonights investor series. Were delighted that we have eight of our Board Members here tonight. We thank them for their service. Without you, these programs would not be taking place. Thank all of you very much. Many thanks for Strategic Partners at the Ronald Reagan building and International Trade center for their wonderful hospitality and providing us this beautiful venue to hold their public programs. If the early bird gets the first one, then those that got here early tonight got the first 120 seats. Theres another 80 or a hundred people downstairs in the spillover room where watching the broadcast on large screen. Were very fortunate tonight that our events are being filmed for nationwide distribution on our own television show, World Affairs today the chairs at 3 0s on the worldview channel. There also distributed globally on youtube, facebook, linkedin, twitter, and other digital platforms. In addition, tonights program is been lights for stream to u. S. And global audience will be immediately available on youtube. This also be broadcasted al jazeera. Thank you to bill mccarron, the ceo of the National Press club for providing us with his life streaming services tonight. Our event 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 family since the mid 19th century. The flag contains nine serrated edges that separate the colored and the white portions. They signify cutters inclusion is a ninth member of the reconciled emirates of the persian gulf at the conclusion of the qatari british treaty in 1916. The colored portion of the flake known as qatar of mindy room, also acknowledges the production of purple died. The white, of course symbolizes peace. Originally known for being a british protectorate whose economy was based mainly on pearl diving, qatar quickly made itself known to the world when it declared independence in 1971 and centralized its economy around oil and natural gas production. 1995 they announce the series of sweeping economic and political reforms. This included the funding and founding of the arab Satellite News Network al jazeera in 1996. The broadcast worldwide. An economic surplus enabled them to replay and relaunch the airways and support the founding of education. Globally recognized stateoftheart academic oasis on the outside of the capital, it host schools from the United States, britain, france and qatar. These includes our friends at Georgetown University, texas a m, carnegie mellon, cornell, virginia commonwealth, Northwestern University, and uc london. Now come in terms of transparency which we are very big on the World Affairs 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 cutter foundation was the recipient of our 2014 Global Education word that was accepted on behalf of the foundation. The ambassadors have participated in our Embassy Series and investor programs and supported our annual world fairs honors Level Education gala. The population is question, anybody know . You just googled it, ruled out of bounds. It is 2 million, 258, 283 people. 11. 6 are native qataris and 88. 4 are non qataris. Bilateral relations between the United States and qatar are strong. Qatar host u. S. Military central command, we have 11000 americans deployed in qatar, and actively supports nato operations against the socalled islamic state. The United States serves as qatars largest foreign investor. In the largest source of imported goods to qatar. These include aircraft, machinery, medical instruments and agricultural products. Qatar is an active member of the un, world bank, and gulf cooperation council. It has also been selected to host the 2022 world cup, another round of applause and notes for distinguished guests. His excellency a career diplomat with only 20 years experience. He presented his credentials to President Trump on april 24, 2017. Ambassador has previously served for three years as the them best or to. He served as qatars permanent representative to the. He has chaired the Qatari Mission to be your brussels served as qatari official release onto nato. He is a graduate of american university, received his masters degree in International Relations in 2004. Tonight, im pleased to introduce another friend tour World Affairs council family. Donna, editor and managing editor of usa today is she previously served as an editor and reporter for breaking news, assignments have covered everything from domestic and international crimes, the war on terror, national disaster. Don is past president of the National Press club. Previously served as chairman of the board of governors. She serves on the board of governors for North Carolina, a Chapel Hill School of journalism and mass communications. Also on the board of the National Press foundation where we served together. Graduate of the university of North Carolina chapel hill, she has completed journalistic law school at leo lee university. The senior journalistic seminar at the Eastwest Center university of hawaii, the paul miller fellowship at the National Journalism foundation, and the casey fellowships at the university of maryland. Were deeply honored to welcome the ambassador to the World Affairs council d. C. Podium. As part of our 2017 investor series. [applause] [inaudible] good evening ladies and gentlemen. Before i begin like to thank tony the remarkable board at the First Council they did next line job organizing this event. And for their unwavering commitment to education and providing a platform for open dialogue. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have been following the news from the region, im sure youre well aware that qatar saudi arabia and the united emirates has imposed an illegal political, economic and social blockade against my country. This country decided overnight to close down all borders and airspace. Stop for food and medicine during the holy month of ramadan expel all the citizens from their country. Yet these steps were not served enough for them. They recall their citizens, turning families apart, mothers from the children, wives from their husbands. And to silence people from speaking out against the popular actions they have impose laws that threaten people with 15 year jail sentence. This is distressing. Briefly there toying with the lives of thousands of people. Im sure carpentry when instigated these 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 of the statement declaring it was false. Its crucial to note that qatar media was blocks in this countrys 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 against the people of qatar. Why question i have been asked since the beginning of this crisis is why. Why have they 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 with the United States they submitted the list of socalled demands. The 13 demands were not reasonable or actionable as the states had hoped. Instead, these would have forced them. But then freese press and free speech. Handled over you and individuals. Reduce our defense capabilities. Disregard and go against, outsource and sign an open check to the countries where they describe as compensation. They are demanding qatar build amount from their failed policies. What these countries are demanding is a surrender of our sovereignty at the price of defending. I like to draw your attention to what i believe of the two motives behind us. 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 its transformation. This when we decided to focus on development by investing in our own people in building a knowledgebased economy. So we have censorship and created al jazeera as a platform for free media and free speech. It is when we introduce social and political reform. Its when we empowered women, its when we decided Foreign 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 them the noise of a good example. It is worth highlighting the transformation were effective as certain governments. A woman is saudi arabia cannot question why a qatar, a country with similar social background, 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. Effort have. Got on recognize. 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 came after establishing a disabling finance flaws, signature to his tillerson prism the first to respond to President Trumps challenge. 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. Tourists are made, not born. That is why we have developed holistic approach to combat terrorism and to have two bases. A military base which everyone is familiar with, but more importantly, an education base. By creating an education hub 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 country should remember that when they join and put the finger on qatar, Three Fingers are pointing back to them. These countries accuse us of supporting terrorism yet it was not us behind 9 11 attacks. Studies have been scrutinized by the International Community. It is those have been repeatedly listed by the state department as a country of primary concern and state department, moneylaundering and financial crimes. The destabilizing the region that a society whose under increased international and u. S. Condemnation for their attack on yemen closely 17 million it is the uv who theyve been critical of. 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 a woman driving a car in saudi arabia is tried in 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. [applause] i will start off with a few questions and then take questions from the audience. Want to start with the reasons behind the blockade. The remarks were pretense and that is what was behind it you think it was the reforms but that was 21 years ago these reforms have been under way for a long time. What do you think prompted this Immediate Reaction . 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. It had been there for 20 years and now what happened is obviously something had been planned for some time. We were part of the summit and we signed on the establishment of the centers. We were still puzzled on the motivations, but i tried to talk about this. It could be that they were trying to promote Mutual Understanding versus the population said they didnt get an answer. Have to thought at all about the motivations for example natural gas deal with iran which may be a threat to saudi arabia. In fact he already has more relations than we do. We share the natural gas fields so the energy going out is coming from lines of communications to understand how the relationship should be dealt with i dont think that has anything to do with [inaudible] they have more investment than we do you need to mention that this blockade is sort of undermining what the world thinks. You wrote an oped in the wall street journal and repeated some of the remarks where you mention saudi arabia role in 9 11. Its basically going to respond with a documentary that accuses fostering terrorism. Again the back and forth, the tarnishing of images in this case five countries to keep going back and forth and tarnishing one another. At what point do they cut off its remarks and is there a way you can sort of stop the public . I was just stating facts. Im not trying to tarnish any countries. What i have praised her facts. They are as you mentioned. We need to in place of anything coming up in the stories as a legitimate story. If you keep going back and forth how does it and ask what was the motivation in bringing up the role in 9 11 if not to provoke them i was by then un ambassador to portray and i wanted to remind them of what the facts are and just to state that he should think twice before accusing people in such a crime. If you could explain 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. There is a very strong relations as other countries have strong relations we have a strategic title, so this is in the context of the gcc but also bilaterally with turkey we have close coordination with nato, and that is the context of that relation. Why do you think that relationship bothers the uae and saudi arabia and egypt and bahrain . Maybe this is a question for them to answer. Okay. So, youve have had a whole range of diplomats coming to try to mediate some diplomats from europe, secretary tellers and most recently president or. It hasnt been working out i suppose. What have you been talking about, tell us about the negotiations and what are the biggest Sticking Points . We are asking the countries to discuss their grievances but so far unfortunately they are not receptive. Weve made to the demands which were difficult for anyone to accept to show the goodwill they dismissed them and we continue to ask the mediators to try to find a way to sit on the table and discuss the differences. What do you think is the next step . Keith stated in his address they are willing to discuss so we look forward to them engaging with the United States to discuss the differences. The other day in an interview the Russian Foreign minister law lovsaid he would be in the diplomatic interference is that something they want this solved as soon as possible because it is counterproductive for everyone. We have to fight against terrorism that we need to focus on and this is affecting everyone. This was an unnecessary regression. Youve passed many laws and belong to many working groups, but the one Sticking Point some countries raise is the support of the Muslim Brotherhood which is something that has been part of the policy for many years. Can you explain to us how you see the Muslim Brotherhood and why you think that alliance is not a problem . First of all, it is not an alliance. Maybe it is good to do some Background Information for the audience. This is a perception that has been created by the uae and saudi arabia fear supporting this. We work with governments, not parties. Our support goes to the people of the country we try to su