In an effort to present his country as a more reliable ally of the West in the war on terror, Qatar’s Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani has said the main reason for terrorism in the Middle East is the presence of authoritarian rulers in the region.
Speaking at a Qatar-sponsored anti-terror conference held in London, in front of ministers of the British government, the minster affirmed his country’s firm resolve to use political, economic and security measures to attack terrorism’s “breeding ground of injustice and authoritarianism”.
Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad al Thani announced earlier this month that the country would hold elections for a 45-member ‘consultative shura council’ in 2019 amid criticism that the country was being run by a royal family which did not allow Doha-based popular broadcaster Al Jazeera to criticise developments inside the country, as opposed to the networks’s critical coverage of political and security issues in the region at large.
Although such elections have already been delayed three times, the pressure stemming from the publicity of holding the FIFA World Cup in 2022, and the ongoing diplomatic dispute with neighbour Saudi Arabia, is thought to make another postponement unlikely.
Qatar also has plans to grant citizenship to some expatriates, and aims to revamp the labour laws in the country after stern reprimands from human rights organisations around the world.
Britain and Qatar also plan to setup an International Centre for Excellence in Countering Terrorism. The move aims to polish the anti-terror credentials of the Middle Eastern nation.
The centre is also seen as an attempt to rival a familiar facility opened by the Saudis, alongside US President Donald Trump, earlier this year.
Thani accused the Saudi leadership of fracturing the region, adding, “A pattern is emerging when they create a new crisis to cover up previous crises.”
He said Saudi Arabia “had created a humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen, divided the Gulf states by attacking Qatar without an exit strategy and tried to pressurise the Lebanese prime minister to resign leaving a vacuum. Which policy of theirs has so far produced a positive result? It has all been counter-productive to stability in the region”.
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have accused the Doha royal family of harbouring and funding terrorist groups such as Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and militant Syrian groups, and imposed a land, sea and air blockade on the country for the past five months.
Thani said the accusation was a pretext – designed to appeal to the west – to mount an attack on Qatar’s sovereignty and political outlook.
The US, European and Kuwaiti efforts at mediation have failed, but so far Qatar’s economy, founded on the export of liquid gas, has suffered little long-term damage.
The Qatari foreign minister, on a tour of western capitals, clearly regards Saudi Arabia’s recent foreign policy adventures as a boon in his efforts to persuade western governments it is the more reliable counter-terror partner.
With the French president, Emmanuel Macron, due in Doha before the end of the year, Thani urged the Saudi crown prince not to provoke a war with Iran, saying “we cannot afford to open up another crisis”.
Calling for an end to the instability in the Middle East, he said: “Populations fall prey to extremist groups if rulers seek power, practise bad governance and strip populations of their human rights and dignity.
“Recent examples of the catastrophes created by evil ideologies can be found across my region: children who have lived through the mass atrocities of the Syrian regime, Isis in Iraq and Syria, or the war in Yemen are now young adults with little hope for a better future.” He said the risk was that such conflicts will breed a new generation of young extremists.
In an attempt to puncture Qatar’s public relations campaign, Arab nations locked in a dispute with Qatar recently designated two entities and eleven individuals as terrorists, citing their links to the Muslim Brotherhood and Qatar.
Those added to the list of terror include Qatar-based International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) and International Islamic Council for Relief.
The quarter of Arab nations allied against Qatar say these groups were working to promote terrorism through the exploitation of Islamic discourse”.
The IUMS was formed in 2004 and is headed by the influential Egyptian theologian Sheikh Youssef al Qaradawi. Most of those who formed the council are said to be members of the Muslim Brotherhood, which led the Arab spring protests in 2011 that toppled some autocrats in the Middle East and north Africa.
The 11 individuals include Khaled Nazem Diab, the director of relief and international development at the Qatar Red Crescent, Hassan Ali Mohammed Juma Sultan, a Bahraini dissident, and the acting general leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mahmoud Ezzat.
Others on the list include the Muslim Brotherhood leader, Alaa Ali al-Samahi, and Egyptian dissidents such as Qadri Mohamed Fahmy Mahmoud al-Sheikh.
The quartet again accused Qatar of aiding terrorism, saying the individuals had “carried out various terrorist operations in which they have received direct Qatari support at various levels, including providing them with passports and assigning them to Qatari institutions with a charitable appearance to facilitate their movement”.
