A public forum in the Gulf State of Qatar has called on Western governments to negotiate with Al Qaeda.
Former hostage Terry Waite, who led the argument for dialogue with what he described as “the extreme edge of insurgency in the Islamic world”, said that building inroads into organisations like Al Qaeda required “courage and perseverance” on the part of governments in the West and the Arab world.
Discussing the motion at the Qatar Foundation’s “Doha Debates” was a panel with vast expertise in the fields of negotiation, national security and government relations.
Speaking for the motion, Waite was joined by General Asad Durrani, the former head of the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). Waite himself came to public attention in the 1980s when he was kidnapped and held captive in Lebanon for over four years, after a long track-record of negotiating hostage releases in Libya and Iran.
Opposing the motion were Dr Laith Kubba, a former spokesman for the Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Al Jaafari, who argued that the legitimacy that such dialogue would bring could only cause further damage. Dr Kubba characterised the group as:
“Fundamentally different from any other terrorist group and nothing more than a death machine”.
Dr Kubba was joined in opposing the motion by Adam Holloway MP, a former British army officer, journalist and now a Conservative parliamentarian serving on the House of Commons Defence Select Committee.
While Holloway conceded that world peace had suffered due to “disastrous US foreign policy” the pair sought to highlight that Al Qaeda was not part of the solution.
Both sides agreed on the need to eradicate the political and economic injustices that fuel terrorism. Pakistan’s General Asad Durrani said: “We did something wrong to create them [Al Qaeda]”, adding “and we’re already talking to them”.
The debate was held in front of an audience at the headquarters of the Qatar Foundation in Doha, and will be broadcast to audiences in over 200 countries on BBC World on the 8th and 9th of September.
About the Doha Debates:
The Doha Debates has created a groundbreaking forum for free speech in the Arab world. Chaired by Tim Sebastian, the internationally renowned award winning broadcaster, the series has been broadcast on BBC World since January 2005, reaching nearly 300 million people in more than 200 countries.
The Doha Debates are hosted and funded by the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development. The Foundation is a private, chartered, nonprofit organization committed to the belief that a nation's true wealth is in the potential of its people. Chaired by Her Highness Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser al Missned, the wife of the Emir, it seeks to develop that potential through a network of centres devoted to education, public health and research.
