Qatar ‘terror’ blacklist revealed

Saudi-led bloc want authorities to take the next step and prosecute the terrorist groups and people who are listed.

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia and its allies unveiled a “terrorist” blacklist of 18 organisations and individuals suspected of links with militant extremism that they said had ties with regional rival Qatar.

The move by the four Arab governments came yesterday despite mounting international pressure to compromise in their weeks-old boycott of their fellow US ally.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt blacklisted nine charity and media organisations and nine individuals “directly or indirectly linked to Qatari authorities” as “terrorist”, a joint statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency said.

“We expect Qatari authorities to take the next step and prosecute the terrorist groups and people,” the statement added.

The four governments have been boycotting Qatar since June 5 in the region’s worst diplomatic crisis in years.

They sealed the emirate’s only land border, ordered its citizens to leave and closed their airspace and waters to Qatari flights and shipping.

They demanded that Qatar break its long-standing ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, blacklisted as a “terror group” by the four governments although not by the international community.

They also demanded that it close broadcasting giant Al-Jazeera and a Turkish military base, and fall in line with Saudi-led policy in the region, particularly towards Iran.

Qatar has dismissed the demands as a violation of its sovereignty and has received significant support from its ally Turkey.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who last week spent four days in the region trying to broker a settlement of the crisis, has voiced satisfaction with Qatar’s efforts to address any suspicion of terror funding.

The four governments yesterday blacklisted three organisations based in Yemen and six based in Libya accusing them of ties to al-Qaeda. — AFP