The new Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani claimed his country will keep on supporting the aspirations of the Arab peoples towards freedom in the face of tyranny.

The new Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani claimed his country will keep on supporting the aspirations of the Arab peoples towards freedom in the face of tyranny, stating that his country did not make these aspirations.

During his first speech since he took office on Wednesday, Sheikh Tamim stressed his country's rejection of the division of Arab communities on sectarian and doctrinal bases.

He also renewed his country’s commitment to all regional and international agreements and treaties, in a hint to the unchangeable foreign policy of Qatar, pointing at the rights of Palestinian people and calling for the Zionist troops withdrawal from all the Arab lands occupied since 1976.

He also praised the reign of his father, Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, and vowed to confront the challenges in the field of infrastructure and oil and gas industries.

Sheikh Tamim inherits a Gulf state that under his father's rule developed into a political and economic emirate with multi-billion-dollar investments across the world.

Under the outgoing emir, Qatar, along with the Saudi Arabia and Turkey, played a role in Middle East affairs massively out of proportion to its size, becoming a major backer of the Syrian crisis.

Syria was hit by a violent unrest since mid-March 2011, where the Syrian government accuses foreign actors, including Qatar, of orchestrating the conflict by supporting the militant opposition groups with arms and money.