Blocking Qatar is blackmail

IT IS disgusting that the Saudiled quarantine of Qatar should occur during the holy month of Ramadaan.

It is a violation of the Arab League protocol, the Organisation of Islamic States and the UN charter. Only the UN Security Council can impose such a sweeping economic, financial and maritime embargo. If left unchecked, it will set a dangerous precedent for other power blocs to emulate.

The ill-conceived move will push Qatar into the Turkish-Iranian orbit. This is a crude effort to effect regime change by stealth and naked intimidation. Qatar has never supported, financed or encouraged global terrorism. No other nation can match its humanitarian assistance to oppressed people.

It has gained global recognition for its contribution towards the fight against terrorism and its sterling diplomatic efforts to resolve bloody international conflicts.

Qatar is an island of peace and prosperity in a volatile area. Its sovereign fund is envied by it’s powerful and sometimes hostile neighbours.

Qatar has always been a peacemaker, supporting ways of constructive dialogue and peaceful solutions to resolve delicate disputes and conflicts. It played a crucial and pivotal role in supporting peace talks between Greeks and Turks over Cyprus, the Arab-Israeli crisis, South Sudan, north Africa and Yemen, among others.

It played a crucial role in ensuring peace in Darfur, culminating in a memorandum of understanding on May 2011. It also gave millions of dollars in reconstruction aid for the people of Darfur.

To claim that Qatar hosts and encourages terrorism is fake news, spawned and distributed by the architects of the New World Order.

Qatar must never surrender to bankrupt political blackmail. Benoni