Shimon Peres in Qatar…
Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani (R) greets Israel ‘s vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres in Doha January 30, 2007. (REUTERS)
Not much was reported in the media on the historic trip by Israeli vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres to Doha, Qatar this past week:
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres launched the highest-level visit of an Israeli to the Gulf region in more than a decade, traveling to Qatar yesterday to appear in a television debate show.
Peres also was the last major Israeli official to travel to any Gulf Arab country when he visited Qatar in 1996 as Israel’s prime minister, said Roi Rosenblit, the head of Israel’s trade mission in Doha. The six Gulf Arab countries, all US allies, do not recognize Israel. But Qatar maintains low-level ties with the Jewish state.
Rosenblit described Israel’s diplomatic ties with Qatar as “low-profile but good.”
Iran responded to these meetings accusing Israel of dividing the region.
Hat Tip to Friend Haider Ajina
But, the historic visit did not deter the regional terror groups…
World Net Daily reports that Abu Nasser, deputy commander of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the northern West Bank, told WND that “There are martyrs on their way to Israeli cities. We will keep sending bombers until we infiltrate and carry out an attack.”
Update: Haider Ajina sends in more translated news from the Peres visit to Qatar:
The article was written by Kuwait’s Alwatan paper.
The article talks about Perez visiting Aljazeera. Perez asked Alkasim at Aljazeera why did they were all dressed in black when they reported the hanging of Saddam and now you greet me so warmly? The answer from Aljazeera was, “It is the requirement of the Job Mr. Perez.” It appears that Perez received a warm welcome at Aljazeera. I love Perez’s question. The article (ending in 45071) was an opinion piece mixed with news, it was a bit sarcastic, however.I searched the original paper (Alwatan) and found three articles about his visit. The one above and 2 more.
Perez flew into Qatar on January 30th to attend many meetings, some of them debates with a group of 300 students. He was greeted by the Prince of Doha Sheik Hamed Bin Khalifah the second. The greeting meeting was attended by the secretary of state Ahmed Bin Abdulah Almahmud and the American and European secretary Ambassador Ali Alhajery.
This was not an official visit. It was a visit to attend a Qatari forum for science, social studies and development.
While Israel (or the Hebrew State as they called it, this is not meant to be derogatory) has no embassy in Qatar it does have a since 1996 a commercial office run by two Israeli diplomats.
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