Qatar actions a dangerous contradiction, UAE envoy says

Doha can’t own stake in Empire State Building and use profits to fund Al Qaida — Al Otaiba

Qatar cannot be allowed to own landmarks and businesses in the US and Europe while using the proceeds to finance extremist groups, the UAE’s Ambassador to Washington said.

“It is a striking and dangerous contradiction: Qatar invests billions of dollars in the US and Europe and then recycles the profits to support Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and groups linked to Al Qaida.

“Qatar hosts the American military base from which the US directs the regional war against extremism, yet it also owns media networks responsible for inciting many of the same extremists … Qatar cannot own stakes in the Empire State Building and the London Shard and use the profits to write cheques to affiliates of Al Qaida,” Yousuf Al Otaiba wrote in an Op-Ed published by the Wall Street Journal on Monday.

Expressing the collective frustration with Qatar’s policies, Al Otaiba wrote: “When the United Arab Emirates and like-minded countries took diplomatic and economic measures against Qatar last week, it was not done lightly or in haste. Rather it was prompted by the accumulation of years of bewildering Qatari behaviour that poses a direct threat to the US, UAE and Qatar itself. If Qatar sows the wind, it will reap the whirlwind. President Trump said it well on Friday: ‘the time had come to call on Qatar to end its funding [of extremism] ... For Qatar, we want you back among the unity of responsible nations.’ Qatar can no longer have it both ways. It must now decide whether it is ‘all in’ — or not — in the fight against extremism and aggression.”

Qatar “must take decisive action to deal once and for all with its extremist problem — to shut down this funding, stop interfering in its neighbours’ internal affairs, and end its media incitement and radicalisation,” he wrote.

Sheltered extremists

Observing that for years, Qatar has supported and sheltered extremists, he wrote: “In the mid-1990s, it harboured the notorious terrorist Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, who became one of the principal plotters of the September 11 attacks.

“Today it hosts and promotes the Muslim Brotherhood’s spiritual leader Yousuf Al Qaradawi, as well as Khaled Meshaal, leader of Hamas, a US-designated terrorist organisation. Last week the UAE and other states designated Mr Al Qaradawi, along with 58 others and 12 organisations, as providing material support for terrorists.

“Many live in, operate from, or receive backing from Doha. Some are linked directly to the ruling family. They will not be lonely — along with Iran, Qatar has the unseemly distinction of having one of the world’s highest concentrations of internationally designated terror financiers.”

The ambassador then went on to cite a 2015 Wall Street Journal article that noted: “For years, Islamist rebel fighters from Libya and Syria travelled to Qatar and returned with suitcases full of money.”

“Doha has provided financial and logistical support to the Nusra Front [now known as Tahrir Al Sham], the Syrian branch of Al Qaida. The Manchester suicide bomber was associated with an Al Qaidaaligned militia in Libya supported by Qatar,” he wrote.

Referring to a Financial Times report that two months ago Qatar paid a hostage ransom of as much as $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion) to a variety of terror organisations in Syria and Iraq that are subject to sanctions, including Iran’s local Hezbollah franchise, Al Otaiba wrote: “In Egypt, Qatar has given a blank cheque to the Muslim Brotherhood, the launching pad for many of the most violent Islamist groups. And just when responsible nations are focusing attention on confronting radicalisation in all of its forms, Qatar-owned media, led by Al Jazeera, continue to incite violence and fanaticism across the Arab world. Like a twisted version of The Daily Show, the cleric Al Qaradawi has used his TV programme to promote a fatwa encouraging suicide bombers, as well as to defend the killing of American soldiers in Iraq as a ‘religious obligation’.”

Festering concern

According to the UAE Ambassador, former US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said in May: “General [John] Abizaid was convinced that Al Jazeera was working against our troops and actually providing information to our enemies. There was concern about — broader concern about Al Jazeera providing a platform for terrorists.”

“The comments by Mr Gates, who led the Pentagon under both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, demonstrate that Qatar has been a festering concern for Washington across parties and administrations.

“The Bush administration began the concerted global effort to target terrorist financing. The Obama administration concluded in 2016 that Qatar ‘lacks the necessary political will and capacity to effectively enforce’ laws against terror financing. Obama officials also considered pulling a US fighter squadron from the Al Udeid airbase over Qatari refusal to take action against terrorist financiers,” he wrote.

Noting that the American presence at Al Udeid was critical to protecting US and allied interests in the Middle East, Al Otaiba assured: “While the current measures against Qatar remain in place, the UAE and America’s other friends in the region will continue working closely with the US military to sustain the base’s full war-fighting capabilities. We also welcome US involvement in facilitating a diplomatic resolution that will allow Qatar, a neighbour and treaty ally, to return to the community of responsible nations.”

On what Qatar must do to remedy the situation, Al Otaiba wrote: “It should first acknowledge what the world already knows: Doha has become a financial, media and ideological hub for extremism. Then it must take decisive action to deal once and for all with its extremist problem — to shut down this funding, stop interfering in its neighbours’ internal affairs, and end its media incitement and radicalisation.”

In a world where terrorists rampage through the streets of European cities and hatch plots against targets in the US, Al Otaiba wrote, “There can be no equivocation, no hedging and no delay in taking on the radical menace”.

“[Qatar] cannot plaster its name on soccer jerseys while its media networks burnish the extremist brand. It cannot be owners of Harrods and Tiffany & Co. while providing safe haven to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood,” he wrote.

[Qatar] should first acknowledge what the world already knows: Doha has become a financial, media and ideological hub for extremism. “Many live in, operate from, or receive backing from Doha. Some are linked directly to the ruling family. They will not be lonely — along with Iran, Qatar has the unseemly distinction of having one of the world’s highest concentrations of internationally designated terror financiers.”

Yousuf Al Otaiba | UAE’s Ambassador in Washington