Pictures at wedding raise questions over Qatar’s action on terrorism
QATAR is facing fresh questions over its claim to be cracking down on support for terrorism after the Gulf state’s prime minister was guest of honour at an event hosted by one of the world’s most prolific terrorism financiers.
Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani, the Qatari prime minister, was photographed alongside Abd al-Rahman bin Umayr al-Nuaymi, weeks after his government designated Mr Nuaymi a financier of terrorism, following similar declarations made by Britain, the US and the United Nations Security Council.
The pictures were taken at the wedding of Mr Nuaymi’s son, Abdullah, on April 11, two days after Qatar’s Emir assured Donald Trump: “We do not tolerate… people who support and fund terrorism.” British ministers had also welcomed the “Emir of Qatar’s commitment to tackle terrorism in all its manifestations, including terrorist financing”.
Khaled Mashaal, the former leader of Hamas, also designated a terror group by the US, was also photographed at the event.
It throws into doubt Qatar’s claims to be taking a zero-tolerance approach to terror financiers as it attempts to end a blockade by neighbouring states that accuse the country of supporting terrorist groups across the region and of being too close to Iran.
Yesterday, the Qatari government confirmed that Sheikh Abdullah had attended the wedding having been invited “personally” by the groom, whom it described as “a government employee of the state of Qatar, and an upstanding young man”.
“There is no hypocrisy at work here. The prime minister will continue to support the good work of his employees and will not avoid a family affair because a defendant standing trial may possibly be in attendance,” the government communications office said in a statement. The government said Mr Nuaymi had been subject to asset freezes and a travel ban since 2015, and prosecutors were “building a new case” against him after he was released last month after an eight month spell in prison having been acquitted “due to lack of evidence”.
Last year Mr Trump denounced the oil-rich state as a “funder of terror”, and initially sided with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain when they severed diplomatic and trade links with Qatar in June 2017.
In March, amid significant international pressure, Qatar released a list of designated supporters of terrorism, including Mr Nuaymi – almost five years after he was first designated by the US as a supporter of terrorism.
Following further assurances made by Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Qatari Emir, during a visit to the White House on April 9, Mr Trump said the Emir had become a “big advocate” of combatting terrorist financing.
But just two days later Sheikh Abdullah attended the wedding of Mr Nuaymi’s son in Doha.
In one picture, posted on social media by a photographer who attended the event, Sheikh Abdullah can be seen greeting the groom while his father looks on in the background.
Other pictures, which appeared in Al Raya, a Qatari newspaper, showed father and son posing in separate photographs with Sheikh Abdullah and Mr Mashaal.
Last June a Qatari official said that Mr Nuaymi was on trial in Doha for terrorism financing. The following month Qatar said it was “not the case” that “financiers of al-Qaeda walk freely in Qatar”. Mr Nuaymi, who has been an adviser to the Qatari government, is accused of sending more than £1million a month to al-Qaeda jihadists in Iraq. He was added to the Treasury’s list of sanctioned individuals in 2014, after being identified by the US as a “specially des- ignated global terrorist” in 2013. According to the US Treasury, Mr Nuaymi has funded a number of violent jihadist groups including al-Qaeda in Iraq, as well as al-Shabaab in Somalia and other groups in the Middle East.
The US insists Mr Nuaymi was at one stage transferring £1.25million a month to al-Qaeda in Iraq. In 2013, he was also discovered to have transferred £375,000 to an al-Qaeda-linked group in Syria.
Mr Nuaymi denies the allegations against him and the Qatari government denies funding terrorism.
In the statement, the Qatari government said: “The Emir of Qatar has no authority to unilaterally jail an individual.”
The statement added: “Qatar exercises due process, and does also not believe that justice is served when children are punished for a parent’s bad act.”
‘There is no hypocrisy here. The prime minister will continue to support the good work of his employees’