Qatar: reform will not be affected by the Doha explosion

Qatar's foreign minister and first deputy premier, Sheikh Hamad Bin Jasem al-Thani, said that the explosion which targeted recently a British children school in Doha will not prevent Qatar from proceeding into the series of reforms it had launched since years.

Sheikh Hamad Bin Jasem said on Monday in Doha in a lecture on the "objectives and content of internal reforms in Qatar" that "reform in the country will not backtrack, and will not be blocked by a similar act to the explosion" which took place on March 19 and resulted in killing one British and wounding other 12 of various nationalities.

The Qatari minister explained, while talking at Doha's fourth cultural festival, that he does not consider that this explosion is the price for some of Qatar's choices, stressing that should this be the price of democracy and freedom, then Qatar will be ready to pay such price.

On what was stated by foreign press that the Doha explosion is the price for the contradiction in the Qatari foreign policy, the chief of the Qatari diplomacy considered that making a link between the incident and the presumed contradictions is but mere media stipulations and that is the price of the freedom of the press, and that Qatar is ready to pay it.

Concerning pressures made on Qatar over al-Jazeera TV, Sheikh Hamad Bin Jasem said "talking about this matter has a positive side. It is the right of al-Jazeera channel to continue to orient and guide the Arab and Qatari citizen, and if there are professional editing mistakes they should be dealt with. What is needed is that al-Jazeera should continue professionally to have (its work) in the region."