Qatar- UK committed to ensuring Gulf security: Hammond

10/30/2015 9:49:16 PM

(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Doha: Britain’s Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said his country is committed to ensuring security of the Gulf and supporting the GCC countries.

Speaking to Qatar News Agency (QNA) Hammond pointed out that his country has full commitment to the security strategy for the Gulf region which will crystallise in the next few months.

At the end of his visit to Doha Hammond said that the situation in Syria particularly after Russian military intervention and Vienna talks were the core issues in his meeting with the Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

The UK Foreign Secretary said he had reviewed with the Emir situation in Yemen stressing that both Qatar and the United Kingdom share same concern about the deteriorating humanitarian situation there.

The meeting also tackled political process in Libya which he described as disappointing as the political agreement has become very complicated.

On the outcome of his talks with Saudi officials Hammond said that there is a common and strong bilateral relations between his country and Saudi Arabia in all fields and there are many issues to be discussed.

“I had discussed with my Saudi counterpart the latest developments in Syria in light of Saudi Arabia’s big role for resolving the crisis in addition to the strategic situation in the Gulf region and the Yemeni issue” Hammond said.

He also met the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia and reviewed with him the overall strategic issues in the region bilateral relations and the regional status quo.

On his country’s vision towards current situation in Syria after the Russian military intervention the British official stressed that the situation in Syria is still catastrophic where civilians are suffering and most of them are forced to flee the country thus exacerbating the refugee crisis that we are trying to address .

He said the Russian intervention constitutes a threat to opposition forces and working to divide them pointing out that the United Kingdom is seeking to continue its support to the moderate opposition to ensure the continued strength of the opposition on the ground and so are not dislodge by Russia under a pretext of fighting Daesh group.

With regard to the ability of the moderate Syrian opposition to fill the political vacuum in Syria UK Foreign Secretary said Bashar Al Assad must go and the moderate opposition will not hold any settlement agreement with him.

He said the Syrian opposition is fighting Daesh group and the Syrian regime and we must ensure a political solution to end this war and double efforts of all forces to eliminate Daesh group.

QNA

Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.