New York/(QNA)23 May 2012/ Qatar has said that the United Nations growing role in maintaining peace and consolidate security opens new horizons and puts forward a distinct concept for the use of mediation as a tool or means for international conflict resolution. HE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Khalid bin Mohammed Al Attiyah, who delivered Qatar's speech in the at the High Level Meeting of the General Assembly on the Role of Member States in Mediation, said that the principle of peaceful settlement of disputes is one of the basic principles that underpin the modern architecture of international relations, particularly since the Peace Conferences of 1899 and 1907. He noted that it was in the last decade in particular that "interest has grown in the settlement of disputes by peaceful means, especially through mediation." He added that the maintenance of international peace and security was at the core of the United Nations activity. He also said that maintaining international peace and security represented a key objective of its Charter that includes multiple mechanisms designed to achieve that goal. Al Attiyah noted that he United Nations had adopted and "developed various methods of work for the management of international crises in response to the emergence of a host of variables that have shaped the organization?s motivation to act," he said. On Qatar's undertaking of mediation as a diplomacy principle, Al Attiyah highlighted Qatar's joining of the Friends of Mediation Group, founded in September 2011. Currently, the group's membership includes 28 States and 7 regional and international organizations. He also said that "All those who have closely followed the Qatari diplomacy can clearly see how Qatar?s experiment has become a source of interest for and acknowledgment of many countries and international organizations and bodies thanks to my country?s initiatives, views and solutions aimed at reducing international conflicts that threaten international peace and security in order to achieve the ultimate goal of the Charter of the United Nations, namely the maintenance of global peace and security.
The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs remarked that Mediation was sometimes carried out by States and international, regional and sub-regional organizations and, at times, by civil society organizations. However he noted that the United Nations bestowed an international legitimacy upon any mediation processes it carries out. "In this regard, the United Nations and regional organizations succeeded with flying colors in settling some conflicts, while they achieved mixed results and failed in resolving others," he said. He added that It was logical, and even necessary, for international and regional organizations to settle disputes that may arise between their Member States, for such function is at the core of the work of those organizations when such conflicts arise in their regions. He stressed that it was such organizations that were the most knowledgeable of the political, socio-economic and cultural aspects of those regions. Al Attiyah called on consolidating partnerships and capabilities between the United Nations and regional and sub-regional organizations in support of mediation and dispute settlement by peaceful means. He added that the benefit of mediation were that it was "an alternative means to peaceful settlement of international disputes stems from the fact that it provides an alternative to the coercion and violence that may arise between the contending States, and an alternative that allows such States to avoid the complexities, procedures and burdensome financial costs of legal options, and the bickering that may arise in an international litigation setting." He said that Mediation also preserved the positive relationship between the parties to the conflict since any negotiated agreement would always take into account the interests of all the parties to the conflict. He also noted that for mediation to achieve its goals, "good intentions of the parties to the conflict, neutrality of the mediators, respect for national sovereignty and cooperation of the parties with the mediator, are prerequisites that need to be met." In his concluding words, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs expressed his confidence that "the present and subsequent meetings would provide an opportunity to achieve the envisaged results, namely to stress the importance of mediation in settling disputes as the best means to settle international conflicts."