UAE AMBASSADOR TO US BELIEVES QATARI EMIR NOT ‘FULLY IN CHARGE’
Yousef Al Otaiba said the Emir of Qatar’s father ‘is still calling the shots’ and is not interested in talks
We’re ready to sit down and negotiate with the Qataris, provided they are willing to sit down and negotiate with us without preconditions
The UAE Ambassador to the United States said his personal opinion was that the emir of Qatar was not “fully in charge” to negotiate on the GCC crisis, now entering its third month.
The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt severed ties with Qatar on June 5 over its support for terrorist groups and for interfering in the internal affairs of other countries.
“We’re three months in now and I’m more convinced than ever that they are not serious about sitting down and having a conversation about how this gets resolved,” Yousef Al Otaiba told The Atlantic in an interview published on Monday.
Mr Al Otaiba said that in his opinion, Qatari emir Sheikh Tamim might not be “fully in charge” in his country.
“It’s possible his parents continue to call the shots in Qatar,” he said. “I think there’s a possibility he might [want to negotiate], but I don’t think his father is interested. And I strongly believe that the father is still calling the shots.”
Mr Al Otaiba reiterated that Qatar was supporting people and groups designated terrorist organisations by the US, UAE and the United Nations.
“Outside of Iran, Qatar hosts the second-largest number of designated terrorists in the world, including 59 people that we’ve just designated, of which 12 are on the US list and 14 are on the UN list,” he said.
“They’re not in jail, they’re not under house arrest. They’re moving around openly and raising money for Al Nusra and Al Qaeda, Libyan militias and many, many others.”
Mr Al Otaiba said there had not been any “substantial progress” in resolving the issue.
“We’re ready to sit down and negotiate with the Qataris, provided they are willing to sit down and negotiate with us without preconditions,” he said. But Mr Al Otaiba said Qatar would not start to negotiate until the boycott ended.
“That’s not going to happen.”
The four boycotting countries are sticking to their 13 demands and six broad principles that they say must provide a framework for any solution. The officials have said that they are open to talks on implementation of their demands but not their content.
The demands include the closure of Qatar-owned Al Jazeera news channel, which the four countries say provides a platform for extremists and dissidents, and the shutting down of a permanent Turkish military base in the country.
The ambassador said that Qatar’s re-establishment of diplomatic ties with Iran “confirms the position we’ve taken, and why we’ve taken it”.
Mr Al Otaiba said that if Qatar changed its behaviour, the UAE would immediately “welcome them back into the tent”.
“If they don’t, if they prioritise their relationship with Iran, their relationship with Hamas, and their relationship with Islamist militias in Libya and Syria – if that is more important to them than their relationship with us then we wish them good luck, but they can’t do that and be our friends at the same time,” he said.
There are two threats in the region, Mr Al Otaiba said – Iran’s behaviour and extremism.
“For us, Hizbollah, ISIL, Al Qaeda, they’re all terrorist groups. We’re not going to distinguish whether you’re a Shiite or Sunni – if you are a threat to the stability of our country you are a threat, regardless of your religious beliefs,” he said.
“I put Iran’s behaviour in another category. Iran is a sovereign state. You see that their behaviour is harming the region, you see that their support for terrorist and proxy groups is destabilising the region.
“Sunni extremism attempts to hijack our religion and then use it for political reasons to gain power, like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, like Hamas in Palestine.”