Qatar’s former PM calls on GCC leaders to set aside differences to face ‘more dangerous’ coronavirus

Tribune News NetworkDohaQatar’s former Prime Minister HE Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al Thani has called on the GCC leaders to come together around a table and device strategies to face the economic, social and political consequences of the coronavirus pandemic in the region.“Is it not the time for you to put aside your differences, which have hurt all of you,” he asked the GCC leadership in a series of tweets on Saturday.“None of us can determine the time when this epidemic that is sweeping the world will be controlled. But what is certain is that there will be health, economic, political and social consequences of this pandemic for the entire world,” he wrote on Twitter.“Historians and scholars will talk about the period before and after the coronavirus, just as we have been saying before September 11 and after September 11.“What I, and all the Arabs, hope is that our leaders in the Arab world, and the Gulf region in particular, can learn lessons, and understand the enormity of the great responsibilities incumbent on them and the amount of work they have to do to ease the burden of negative consequences, especially in the economic field."While the former PM called for a GCC-wide cooperation to combat the consequences emerging from the pandemic, he affirmed that it was not a call for the lifting of the unjust blockade imposed on Qatar by some of its neighbours. “I do not want anyone here to think that I want, in these painful circumstances, to petition to lift the siege on my country,” he said.“We lived through three years of siege and were able to overcome its consequences, thanks to the steadfastness of the leadership and the Qatari people, and we can continue with the same determination, but the challenges facing us all are much greater.“So is it not time for a wise man to reform the situation so that we can avoid what is more dangerous?”