Qatar move to amend terror law positive step

Pressure of crisis has started to bear fruit, and the wiser course will be changing whole orientation, UAE says

The UAE yesterday said Qatar’s decision to amend its anti-terrorism law was a positive step.

Qatar has set rules for defining terrorism, acts of terrorism, freezing funding and terrorism financing.

It has also established national terrorism lists with rules for listing individuals and groups.

“The Qatari decree to amend the anti-terroism law is a positive step to deal seriously with the 59 terrorists,” UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Mohammad Gargash said on Twitter.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain designated dozens of people with links to Qatar as terrorists, including Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yousuf Al Qaradawi, and 12 entities, among them Qatari-funded charities.

“The pressure of the crisis has started to bear fruit, and the wiser course would be changing the whole orientation,” Gargash added.

The four countries led a diplomatic and economic campaign to pressure and isolate Qatar.

Last night Qatar’s Emir Shaikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani said it was time for negotiations to resolve differences between Doha and four Arab states which have severed diplomatic ties with it.

“The time has come for us to spare the people from the political differences between the governments,” he said in his first speech since the crisis.

Egypt accused Qatar on Thursday of adopting a “pro-terrorist” policy that violated United Nations Security Council resolutions and described it as “shameful” that the 15-member body had not held Qatar accountable. Egyptian Deputy UN Ambassador Ehab Awad Mustafa made the remarks after the Security Council adopted a resolution to renew sanctions on Daesh and Al Qaida.

“It’s crucial for the Security Council to make these countries that don’t respect these resolutions accountable,” Mustafa told the council. “For example, the adoption by the Qatar regime of a pro-terrorist policy.”

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain boycotted Qatar last month, saying it financed terrorists throughout the region.

Mustafa told the council that Qatar “believes that the economic interests and the different political orientations will protect them from any accountability vis-a-vis the Security Council because it has violated the resolutions of the council.”

“That shameful situation cannot continue. This council’s resolutions must be effective, they must stop any violation.”

Meanwhile, Dr Anwar Mohammad Gargash, UAE Minister of State for Foreign affairs, yesterday said changes to Qatar’s anti-terror legislation was a “positive” step in the crisis between Doha and four Arab neighbours. Qatar announced a decree by Emir Shaikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani late on Thursday establishing two nominal lists of individuals and terrorist entities, and the requirements for being included in them.

It also defined terrorists, terrorist crimes, terrorist entities as well as the financing of terrorism. The decree follows the signing on July 11 of a US-Qatar agreement to combat terror funding during a visit to Doha by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to try to defuse the Gulf crisis.

Change orientation

However, the four Arab countries — Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain — at odds with Doha dismissed that deal as “insufficient”.

“It is a positive step to deal seriously with the list of 59 terrorists,” Gargash said in a tweet. “The pressure linked to the crisis has begun to bear fruit.” But Gargash, repeated his demands for Qatar to reorient its policies in order to ease the crisis with its Arab neighbours.

“It would be wiser [for Qatar] to totally change its [political] orientation,” he said. The dispute erupted when the Arab bloc broke diplomatic and commercial ties with Qatar on June 5 for its support to terrorism.

They have boycotted Doha, including closing its only land border, refusing Qatar access to their airspace and ordering their citizens back from Qatar.

On June 9, Saudi Arabia and its allies published a list of 59 people and 12 organisations for their involvement in “terrorism” with support from Qatar.