Al Mahmoud: The entire world has come while the counties of the blockade missed the occasion.

06 April 2019




HE the Speaker of the Qatari Advisory Council Ahmed bin Zaid al-Mahmoud has pointed out that the countries of the blockade (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt) had not submitted an objection at the 139th General Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) meetings, held in Geneva in October last year, when a session was held to vote for Qatar hosting the IPU 140 Assembly, which is being held currently in Doha.

He stressed that the IPU 140 Assembly hosted by Doha is part of the high appreciation of the world to Qatar and its distinguished place among the world countries. The entire world has come to Doha to the event while the countries of the blockade missed it.  

Al-Mahmoud was speaking at a press conference held on Saturday afternoon at the Doha Sheraton hotel, alongside the IPU President Gabriela Cuevas Barron and the IPU Secretary General Martin Chungong. Barron praised the unprecedented high-profile attendance of large numbers of participants at the IPU assembly in Doha. She said that 162 countries are participating at the assembly with 30% of the participating delegates are women and 13% young people.

However, she condemned the banning of Venezuela's representatives from attending this assembly, which is considered a platform for diplomacy and sharing dialogue. The IPU General Assembly received around 60 complaints on human rights violations in Venezuela. 

Chungong pointed out that the IPU 140 focuses on the issue of education for peace and democracy, stressing that many crises could be attributed to the lack of education or its low quality. Accordingly, the IPU 140 is working on producing recommendations that support the achievement of sustainable development. Besides, the meetings will take the opportunity of the participation of the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism to discuss the phenomenon of terrorism and extremism as what happened recently in New Zealand.