H. E. Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr Al-Thani, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs affirmed that there is an obvious Arab consensus following the Arab Foreign Ministers' meeting in Beirut which assisted in making the major powers and the Security Council adopt a clear stance as regards Resolution 1701 in addition to the steadfastness of Lebanon and the support of Lebanese people to their government and the united Arab position.
H. E. also stated in the press conference which he convened at the Arab League headquarters that if there was a clear-cut Arab vision that was unanimously agreed-upon this could bring about positive results for Arab causes.
In reply to a question whether the Arabs would go to the Security Council with a comprehensive project that expressed the viewpoint of the Arab League, H.E. explained that it is still early to speak of a unanimous Arab project, yet we should get to know if the five permanent member States would accept this issue and accordingly we would act together with them in order to put the peace process on its correct track and draw up a clear- cut concept on the Arab rights in a comprehensive way.
In reply to a question on the allegations that H.E. and his family paid a visit to Israel before heading to Beirut to attend the recent meeting of Arab Foreign Ministers H. E. denied that neither he nor his family entered Israel, underlining that the only time he ever entered Israel was when he flew directly from the Arab League to meet with the deceased Yassir Arafat when the latter was under siege and the visit was publicly announced.
H.E. underscored that all that was raised in this respect were sheer allegations for reasons he knew and some quarters aimed at raising doubts. H.E.said that they were now tackling the Arab situation and that they needed an obvious Arab stand, there might be some criticism ? Qatar or him personally could be criticized but he said that he had enough courage to admit that he spent summer in Israel, he and his family, if he actually did so, if that was true I would said that publicly, he added.
H.E. explained that the day he arrived in Lebanon he was coming from Syria where he met the Syrian President that night and in the morning he directly flew to Lebanon from Syria. H.E. went on to say that he knew the quarter which raised the issue and the reasons behind that but he didn't want to indulge in the issue because the aim behind it was to distract us from more important issues. They, however, wanted to focus on more important issues.
In reply to a question regarding the hesitation at holding an Arab summit H. E. stated that there were discussions and studies that were yet to agree upon.
Regarding the joint Arab action within the coming period, H.E. stated that the Lebanon crisis was important because the Ministers dealt with it in transparency. If they followed the same transparency in dealing with any other crisis the Arabs would achieve success. They should never internationally underestimate their Arab strength and efforts should be concerted and unified.
Regarding the Iraqi issue H.E. reiterated the importance of the unity and stability of Iraq and the full preparedness to support any stance which the Iraqis agreed upon.