UAE warns Qatar

Dubai : In a terse statement, UAE Foreign Minister yesterday warned Qatar to change its “policy of supporting extremism and terrorism and of conspiring against its neighbours and the region.”

Anwar Gargash, in a series of tweets, carried by local Arabic newspapers, said that Doha chose to be isolated and their leaders were “clearly confused and perplexed and do not want to address the core issues.”

“The solution is for the Qataris to change their stances and approaches that have harmed their country and isolated it from its natural environment,” he wrote. 

Terming Qatar’s denials of supporting extremism and terrorism as a media tactic, the Minister pointed  out that Doha had ‘conspired against the late Saudi King Abdullah.”

He also refuted claims that UAE was inciting against Qatar. The Minister said that Yousuf Al Qaradawi, the Egypt-born Doha-based Muslim Brotherhood leader, had urged to use the Qatari territory to target the UAE. 

“His incitement was part of the 2014 crisis.”

Gargash further reminded Qatar that the situation can be resolved only if “Qatar stops pursuing policies that are harmful to both Qatar and the region.”

“We have been used to the duality of the Qatari political discourse. For it is Qatar that hosted Al-Qaeda which bombed Iraq and supported Hamas and created warm relations with Israel,” he tweeted. “And it communicated with Saudi Arabia while it conspired against King Abdullah.”

The minister said that Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates withdrew their diplomats from Qatar over that country’s support for Islamist groups. The political solution called for by the four countries clearly demands a framework for negotiations.

Qatar was a “great neighbour” prior to 1995, he said adding that sometimes the problem stems from “collective Qatari jealousy” and sometimes for their need to maintain their sovereignty.