The Shura Council State of Qatar

The Shura Council participated in the meeting of the Standing Committee on Political Affairs of the Asian Parliamentary Association (APA), which was held the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

Their Excellencies Members of the Shura Council Eng. Ahmed bin Hitmi Al Hitmi and Nasser bin Mutarrif Al Humaidi, represented the Council at the meeting.

During the meeting, members of the bureau were elected. The meeting also reviewed the report of the Secretary-General of the APA on the work of the committee, and discussed a number of draft resolutions.

The attendees agreed that only one topic would be raised during the meeting, as they unanimously agreed to choose the Israeli aggression against Gaza and the genocide and massacres that the Palestinian people are subjected to as the topic of discussion.

The meeting issued a statement, in which the committee affirmed the right of the Palestinian people to struggle and legitimate resistance by all available means in order to establish the independent State of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital, and the right of return of the refugees who were displaced from Palestine in 1948 in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194.

The statement called for an immediate and unconditional halt to all forms of hostilities, an end to the unjust siege on Gaza, and the delivery of urgent relief aid to the Palestinian people.

Attendees of the meeting also stressed the necessity of establishing a fund for the reconstruction of cities destroyed by the Israeli entity, calling on the international community to adopt unified standards in dealing with similar issues, and to put pressure on the Israeli side to stop the war immediately and adhere to international humanitarian laws and conventions.

The statement called for supporting granting Palestine full membership in the United Nations, and rejecting and stopping the Israeli entity's plans aimed at annexing the entire Palestinian Jordan Valley region, the northern Dead Sea, and the settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The attendees expressed their rejection of the Israeli entity's plans aimed at displacing the people of Gaza and the West Bank outside the borders of the Palestinian state.

The statement stressed the necessity of ending the occupation and aggression of the Israeli entity on all Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese territories, to achieve peace, stability and prosperity in the Middle East.

It also called for the release of all Palestinian and Arab prisoners from the prisons of the Israeli entity, and the cessation of all Judaization projects that target Islamic and Christian sanctities in Jerusalem, especially the incursions and raids on Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The statement called on the International Criminal Court to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the war crimes committed in Gaza, calling on members of the Inter-Parliamentary Union to cancel the membership of the Israeli entity from the Union's Anti-Terrorism Committee.

On the margin of the meeting, the Shura Council delegation met with a number of members of the Iraqi Parliament's Foreign Relations Committee, where the two sides discussed parliamentary cooperation relations, and a number of topics on the meeting's agenda.

Representatives of the councils and parliaments of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries held a meeting chaired by HE Eng. Ahmed bin Hitmi Al Hitmi, member of the Shura Council, with the aim of coordinating positions and visions among representatives of the Gulf councils participating in the meeting.