Tillerson bats for Qatar monitoring mechanism
istanbul — US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson flew to the Middle East on Monday for talks aimed at resolving a crisis over the cutoff of diplomatic and transport links with Qatar by Saudi Arabia and three regional allies.
In Doha, a Western diplomat said creation of a “terror finance monitoring mechanism” would feature in the talks. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and Egypt imposed sanctions last month, accusing Doha of aiding terrorism.
The US State Department said Tillerson, who forged extensive ties in the Gulf as CEO of ExxonMobil, would hold talks with leaders in Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. He was flying from Istanbul where he attended an international petroleum conference.
R.C. Hammond, a senior adviser to Tillerson, said he would explore ways to end a stalemate following Qatar’s rejection of 13 demands issued as condition for ending sanctions. —
Dubai — The International Criminal Court (ICC) has denied the fabricated reports by Qatari media outlets that said the ICC had condemned the boycott by the four Arab countries — Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt against Doha. The ICC said it had not issued any statement on the Qatar crisis.
Al Jazeera TV Channel and a number of other Qatari media outlets ran a story on the meeting of the Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdul Rahman Al Thani with the ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda in Doha. In those reports, the Doha media outlets said the foreign minister had briefed Bensouda on the latest developments of the Qatari crisis.
Reports went on to claim that Bensouda had termed the Arab boycott as the violation of human rights. Al Jazeera also claimed the ICC prosecutor had praised the way Qatar was handling the crisis.
The ICC denial nails the lies of the Qatari media outlets about the European, the US and the UN officials position on the Qatar boycott.
Qatar claimed that it had formed a committee to address what it labelled requests for compensations to be submitted by persons or companies who suffered damage as a result of the measures taken by the Arab countries.
Iraqi tribal clans are considering filing lawsuits against Doha, while Egypt has confirmed that it is planning to issue documents condemning the Qatari regime for supporting terrorist outfits inside and outside Egypt.
Yet, Qatar is trying to play victim and is crying that the boycott had harmed a number of people, while the countries which call for combating terrorism have underscored that the measures are not targeting the Qatari people nor those who live in Qatar, but the government which strayed from the path of the peace and supported terrorism. The declaration of constitution of a ‘committee’ is an admission of the damage of its economy as a result of the measures which it brought upon itself, though Doha bragged and boasted about it not being hit by the boycott.
Qatari attorney general Ali Bin Fitais Al Mirri said the committee will assess the demands for compensations from private companies, public corporations and individuals.
Addressing a Press conference, he said the committee will try to get compensations by filing suits against the countries at the local and international courts. The Qatar Central Bank, meanwhile, boasted it had cash reserves amounting to $340 billion, but admitted huge cash withdrawals by non-residents.
Qatar Central Bank governor Abdullah Saud Al Thani told CNBC that the bank had noticed the exit of cash but described the size of these outflows as not huge.
Experts stressed that the Qatari economy is paying the price for the political adventurism. They described the Qatari economy as fragile, especially in the absence of the economic diversification programmes, and it depends only on oil and gas.
malzarooni@khaleejtimes.com