The following interview with His Highness The Amir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, was published in The Times of India on 25 March, 2015.
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Amir of the energy-rich emirate of Qatar is currently playing a pivotal role in international affairs — presiding over reconciliation talks between Afghanistan and Pakistan-supported Taliban; an active member of the US-led coalition against ISIS, but also accused of financing the terror group; an energy giant that is home to over 6 lakh Indians — and a controversial host of the 2022 World Cup, the first ever to be held in winter. In India, as the first Arab leader to engage with the Modi government, Sheikh Tamim took time off to chat with The Times of India in his first ever interview — about investing in India, about terrorism and the World Cup.
This will be your first interaction with the new Indian government. But is there a relationship beyond energy?
Our relations are not confined to gas. They are far beyond that. We have historical ties with India and they’ve been very important relations. We have around 631,000 Indians working here in Qatar, from laborers to doctors and engineers. We owe the Indians who have been helping to develop our country for many years. But I believe there is a gap to fill. My aim for the visit is to sit with our Indian friends and say we have to go beyond the good relations. There are other things to be done. I know that the new government is taking a number of initiatives, especially in business and investments, which is very interesting from our point of view.
Our investment is open. We have no agenda. I believe this investment is for future generations. What this government has been doing in the last few months has been very encouraging. We trust the Indian economy. So we will invest in India.
For example, we are looking at infrastructure investments. Infrastructure is very important. There are cities which need better infrastructure.
What is the political conversation you are looking for with India?
We will discuss the situation as it is happening in this region. Governments are changing; the Arab Spring started five years ago and is still continuing. We call it the Arab revolution. We have been facing problems with terrorist movements. All these will be part of our conversation. With 7 million Indians living here, I know it’s important for the Indian government to understand what we feel and what is going on. Though the Gulf countries are stable, we are very close to the unrest in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. The longer that continues, we know that it will affect our region. We have to find solutions. I think peaceful political solutions are the only — ideal — way out of it.
What about the problem in Syria?
In the case of Syria, the regime does not accept a peaceful solution. He (Bashar al Assad) has been facing his own people with weapons, killing his own people. If you go back to the early days of the uprising … they did not want to topple the regime. They wanted him to continue but they wanted reform and dignity. And what happened? He started killing his own people.
I totally disagree with the approach that sees only terrorist movements versus the regime. No. There are millions of people in between. Some of those terrorist movements grew because of the killing environment in Syria. What did you expect when people are on the streets and demonstrating and being met by chemical weapons and bombs. In this atmosphere, people become fighters and extremists.
The only way out is a peaceful solution, but without this president. We are not sure if he gave up his chemical weapons completely, because recent news says he used them again last week against his own people.
What is your perspective of Daesh (ISIS)?
You only hear from the West about terrorist movements. But you should hear from everybody. We and India, we are closer to each other than any other country. We should be talking to each other more openly about these problems and what are the causes of these problems. When the Arab Spring started, you didn’t hear about terrorist movements. There was a lot of hope for freedom, for dignity, for equality.
But things started to get bloody in Syria and other countries; now we see other terrorist groups are growing.
We have to identify the real reason for these terrorist movements. We have had terrorist movements earlier. It has nothing to do with religion, because every religion has had its own terrorists and extremists. A decade ago everybody was fighting terrorism, another terrorist group, Al Qaeda. They were successful to some degree.
Then other terrorist groups came, stronger, bloodier, more brutal. We have to understand the main reason behind these. I believe the only way out is to have a political process – freedom for people’s participation in their future. That is the best hope for the Arab youth.
Terrorism is also feeding sectarian conflicts in your region, which is a matter of concern to us.
This too mainly started after the 2003 Iraq invasion. Before that we didn’t hear much of the sectarian problems between Muslims. The war in Iraq was a disaster, and after that sectarian clashes started. I know how delicate it is in India, and the importance of national identity in excluding sectarianism, and I hope it continues like that, because at the end we all have to live with each other.
How will your region change if there is a nuclear agreement between Iran and US?
We’ve always been saying that there should be an agreement between Iran and the West. We said it to our Iranian brothers and we said it also in the media to our friends in the West that there should be an agreement, but we have to be fair with everybody. For the long run there is no other way to stop this race except by keeping the region free of nuclear weapons. I mean the whole region, including Israel of course. I believe Iran is a very important country and it’s in our interest to have this file closed.
There is a sense that after a US-Iran nuclear agreement, Saudi Arabia could develop its own nuclear weapons with Pakistan. Is this something you think about?
I’m not sure about this information, but I think Saudi Arabia plays an important role in this region. I know that they’re concerned with the security and stability of the region. We believe in the leadership of Saudi Arabia that they can move forward and play a stabilizing role in spite of the turbulence. But I cannot talk about the nuclear weapon race, because I’m not sure about this information. I know that the Saudi leadership is interested in a peaceful solution between the West and Iran, and as a big country, as a main country in this region, they have the right to question any agreement and to make sure that the agreement does not contradict the interests of the region as a whole.
Qatar is also facilitating Taliban reconciliation talks. What are the prospects there?
I think mediation is a role we play and we always want to play, and continue playing if we can be mediators to try to have peace in the region. To have a peaceful process in Afghanistan should be more important for you than for Qatar. I know that the people of the Taliban are usually committed to what they say. We have been working with them and with the Americans for three years now, to find a solution in Afghanistan.
From time to time there are talks, but I think we need to try to move them faster. It takes time, but you notice the progress if you compare with the situation 3 years ago
How would you answer the persistent reports of Qataris funding terror groups like ISIS?
You mentioned about business people financing terrorist people. Listen, honestly speaking; people have been talking a lot about Qatar and spreading wrong rumors, but if you think about terrorist finance it can happen in all countries, including Western countries. We in Qatar, I can assure you that we have laws to prevent that and we are doing the utmost to prevent helping terrorist movements.
People don’t understand that sometimes people do it, not intentionally to support terrorism; they are helping their brothers in Syria and Iraq, but sometimes the money goes to the wrong people, so it is very difficult for some of the people to see who is really financing the terrorist and who is not. That’s why we as a state are making sure by law to prevent such action and that anybody who does this should punished, and that money if it goes to those countries, goes to the right people.
Go to Syria and Iraq and most of the weapons there are from the West. I don’t know who is funding, but sometimes it’s difficult to prevent that falling into the wrong hands, like the case when ISIS occupied bases of the Iraqi Army.
Are you prepared for the World Cup, because I can see a lot of Indians would travel here to watch the games …? And would you address the criticism about migrant labor?
We are expecting tens of thousands of Indians for the World Cup. We are a third world country, we are a Middle Eastern country and we’re a Muslim country. You have people against those three things, and we’re a very small country, but the way we won the bid, is because we’ve been representing the Arab countries and we mean it. It is something that the whole region is looking forward to: Indians, Qataris, Saudis, Moroccans, etc. All around the region people are looking forward to this World Cup. Any country that hosts a big event might face bad publicity, bad press coverage.
Many of it is wrong, but some of it is right. This is why we are very serious, when we talk about labor, especially where Indian laborers are coming. We’re very serious with the labor law; we’ve been very strict with employers. Many big countries have been blacklisted because they are not going according to the law. We are changing the laws and things are becoming much and much better now. The reports I received since we started construction for the World Cup, not even one incident, and you know constructions are very dangerous.
People talk about Qatar, but it happens in their countries. I think this is something that we have to face in the next seven years. We are confident that we can deliver and we are confident as a country that if we have a mistake we face it openly and we accept constructive criticism.
You appear to be focusing a lot on sports as a policy in Qatar. What is driving that?
We like sport. I personally think that it is good education for the mind and body of our youth. We’ve been hosting big events for many years. You know we did something very important in the last few years, we have a national sports day in Qatar and it’s a holiday that everybody participates in, including myself.
I used to be a tennis player, and I’m a sports fan. I like all kinds of sports. Unfortunately I’m not good with cricket, but we have some cricket competitions happening here, even a league, because we have many Indians.