Dubai: Qatar doesn’t have the option to take a middle-line policy anymore as the time has come for it to decide whether it is “all in” or not in the fight against extremism and aggression, wrote the UAE Ambassador to the US in an article published on Monday.
Ambassador Yousuf Al Otaiba wrote in an Op-Ed piece in The Wall Street Journal saying the recent decision by four countries to cut diplomatic relations with Doha was an expression of a collective frustration with Qatar’s policies.
“If Qatar sows the wind, it will reap the whirlwind”, he said.
“It is a striking and dangerous contradiction: Qatar invests billions of dollars in the US and Europe and then recycles the profits to support Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and groups linked to Al Qaida.
“Qatar hosts the American military base from which the US directs the regional war against extremism, yet it also owns media networks responsible for inciting many of the same extremists… Qatar cannot own stakes in the Empire State Building and the London Shard and use the profits to write cheques to affiliates of Al Qaida,” Al Otaiba wrote.
Doha is required today to shut down its funding to extremists, stop interfering in neighbouring internal affairs, and put an end to its media indictment and radicalisation.
Doha shuts gas plants
Qatar, the world’s largest natural gas producer, meanwhile, has closed its two gas production plants, industry sources told Reuters. The plants operated by RasGas, a subsidiary of state-owned Qatar Petroleum, were shut because Saudi Arabia closed its border with Qatar, blocking overland exports of the gas, a Qatar Petroleum official said.
In Washington, the Saudi foreign minister insisted there’s no blockade on Qatar and said his country will provide food and medical supplies if needed.
Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir said before a meeting with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that Qatar’s ports and airports are open.
He said Saudi Arabia has merely denied Qatar use of its airspace, which he said is his country’s sovereign right.
