The head of Qatar’s Mission to the European Union, Sheikh Ali bin Jassim al-Thani, has called on the European Union (EU) to help secure the release of the two Qatari nationals kidnapped in Iraq.
The Qatari nationals entered the Iraqi territory with a permit from Iraq’s interior ministry in co-ordination with the Iraqi embassy in Doha, Sheikh Ali said.  
Speaking at the annual meeting of the GCC-EU committee of political dialogue experts, which was held in Brussels, Sheikh Ali called on the European Community to urge the Iraqi government to take measures to ensure the safety of Qatari detainees and secure their release as soon as possible.
He affirmed that Qatar rejected such terrorist acts which constituted a breach of the international law and a violation of human rights, calling on the European Union to co-operate with the Qatari authorities on this due to the close relations between the two sides.  
He also renewed Qatar’s keenness to find a political solution to the Syrian crisis in accordance with the Geneva Conference I.
He noted that Qatar had never hesitated a moment to provide all necessary assistance to Syrian refugees to ease their suffering and had allotted for this purpose more than $1.2bn since the crisis broke out in 2011.
He referred to Qatar’s initiative, entitled Educate A Child, which allowed more than 600,000 Syrian children to return to schools, pointing out  that by the end of 2016 the number would increase to 1mn children.
In addition, Qatar had provided 100 scholarships for Syrian refugees to enroll in Sorbonne University in France, allocated $2,300,000 for education in refugee areas in partnership with the Unicef and allocated two schools for Syrian children.
Sheikh Ali reaffirmed Qatar’s rejection of all forms of violence and extremism as well as its explicit condemnation of terrorist acts, wherever they are, and the state’s commitment at all levels to combat such criminal acts within the international mechanisms, especially since terrorism had become a  serious global phenomenon which required all efforts to curb it.