Emirati diplomat stands firm over action on Qatar
A TOP Emirati diplomat has said “there’s nothing to negotiate” with Qatar over a growing diplomatic dispute about the energyrich nation’s alleged funding of terror groups.
Speaking in a rare interview, Emirati Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said Qatar has “chosen to ride the tiger of extremism and terrorism” and now needs to pay the price.
He said Qatar “absolutely” should expel members of Hamas, stop its support of terror groups “with al-Qaida DNA” around the world, and rein in the many media outlets it funds, chief among them the Doha-based satellite news network Al-Jazeera.
While applauding a Kuwaiti effort to mediate the crisis, Mr Gargash said Emirati and Saudi officials plan to concede nothing to Qatar, an international air travel hub now cut off from some of the skies around it and blocked from receiving the trucks full of food it relies on to feed its citizens.
Their “fingerprints are all over the place” in terror funding, he said.”
Qatar has long denied funding extremists, and its foreign minister has struck a defiant tone in interviews, even after worried residents emptied grocery shops in the capital Doha fearing food shortages.
Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates were among those who joined Saudi Arabia on Monday in cutting diplomatic ties with Qatar. The Arab countries have blocked Qatari vessels from entering their airspace, as well as using their seaports, and Saudi Arabia has closed off land borders.
While its flag carrier Qatar Airways now flies increasingly over Iran and Turkey, the airline has been blocked from landing elsewhere in the Middle East. AlJazeera offices also have been shut down by authorities in Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
Speaking from a Foreign Ministry office in Dubai, Mr Gargash listed a number of terror groups he alleged Qatar had funded, including al-Qaida’s branches in Syria and Somalia.