Repressive regimes cause of terrorism, says FM

Doha: Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has said the allegation of supporting terrorism on Qatar by siege countries is a tool to gain sympathy in Western countries while extremist policies pursued by repressive regimes are the main cause of terrorism.

The Deputy Prime Minister also revealed that the reason for the UAE media onslaught on Qatar before the start of Gulf crisis was the presence of wife of an Emirati opposition figure who entered Qatar and left for London in 2013.

Speaking on Qatar TV “Truth” last night, the Deputy Prime Minister said Abu Dhabi had asked to hand over the woman to the UAE.

“His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim assured them that Doha would not be used as a platform to attack the UAE or any other country and as long as the woman is not guilty of our law, morality and values do not allow the extradition of a woman.”

The Deputy Prime Minister pointed out that the woman’s passport was withdrawn by the UAE embassy in Doha. He said that all differences before the start of Gulf crisis were minor but two months before the Gulf crisis Qatar noticed media attacks from the UAE-based media outlets and contacted them to solve the problems bilaterally.

“The response of the UAE was conditional with the extradition of the woman and they stopped cooperation. Then Qatar approached Saudi Arabia and briefed them on the situation,” he said.

The Deputy Prime Minister said that the then Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Prince Mohammed bin Nayef and Prince Mohammed bin Salman said their country would not become part of the dispute and supported the Qatari stance.  “They said they would work to contain the differences, and we will act as a mediator.”

H H the Emir is also keen on Qatari-Gulf relations and resolving any problems between brothers, the Deputy Prime Minister said. He said that a hostile media offensive in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE against Qatar launched immediately after the hacking of the QNA. “We wanted the investigation of the crime of cyber attack to be conducted in a transparent manner, therefore, we welcomed the participation of the FBI and the Crime Enforcement Agency of Britain and we managed to identify the location and how the crime occurred,” he remarked.

He said that Qatar allowed those who restored their Qatari nationality to retain their Bahraini nationalities in order to preserve the situation in Bahrain. He said that the blockading countries promised Kuwait’s Foreign Minister following the crime of cyber attack that they are going to submit complaints and grievances against Qatar but nothing happened so far. “The blockading countries are spending huge amounts of money on media campaigns against Qatar for media outlets in America and Europe. We noticed there are many contradictions in their stances, most notably the issue of internationalization of the crisis, but we saw them conducting diplomatic campaign abroad at the beginning of the crisis to promote lies against Qatar,” he added.

The Deputy Prime Minister pointed out that Qatar worked in a joint operation room with these countries in Syria but we were surprised by their claim that we financed terrorism there. “The siege countries have not provided the international community with evidence except clippings of their newspapers to prove their allegations against Qatar. Qatar contacted all the friendly countries and explained to them our position. Some of these countries approached the siege countries but they did not respond to any mediation.”

He said that the siege States fabricated allegations against Qatar in relation to the financing of terrorism. “The charge of supporting terrorism is a tool they used to gain sympathy in the Western countries, while extremist policies pursued by repressive regimes are the main cause of terrorism.”

He said that Qatar had responded to the demands of the blockading countries legally and handed over its response to His Highness the Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah and Qatar assured him that “we are open to dialogue”. He said that US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson presented a roadmap to resolve the Gulf crisis during his visit to the region and Qatar agreed to that and waited for the response of the blockading countries but the US told us that it had not received any response from those countries. “It is not acceptable to impose demands on a sovereign state although we have dealt with the provocative demands of these states with an open mind in respect and appreciation of the Kuwaiti mediation.”

He said that the Emir welcomed the Kuwaiti Emir’s invitation to attend the Gulf Summit as an opportunity to meet GCC leaders face-to-face and discuss the Gulf crisis but they did not attend the meeting in Kuwait.