Qatar rapped for collusion in Somalia terrorism

Qatar was accused of being a “malign state” after evidence emerged that Doha colluded in Islamist militant attacks in Somalia targeting the assets of other Gulf states. A phone conversation between Khalifa Kayed Al Muhanadi, a Qatari businessman close to Qatar’s emir Shaikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and Hassan bin Hamza Hashem, the Qatari ambassador to Somalia, show’s Doha’s involvement in Al Shabab terrorism in the Somali port of Bosaso, which is operated by the Dubai company DP World.

“The bombings and killings, we know who is behind them,” Al Muhanadi says in a recording of the conversation leaked to The New York Times. “Our friends were behind the last bombings.” The attacks were “intended to make Dubai people run away from there,” he said. “Let them kick out the Emiratis, so they don’t renew the contracts with them and I will bring the contract here to Doha.” The ambassador replies: “So that’s why they are having attacks there, to make them run away.”

US President Donald Trump had accused Qatar in the past of financing terror. However, on a visit by Shaikh Tamim to the White House this month, Trump said the emir was a friend, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin thanked Qatar for combating terrorist financing. The world may be surprised by Doha’s sponsorship of terrorist attacks but Qatar’s neighbours are not, Salman Al Ansari, founder of the Saudi American Public Relation Affairs Committee, was quoted by Arab News.