(MENAFN- The Peninsula) By Mohammed Osman | The Peninsula
Doha:Two years have passed since the blockade was imposed on Qatar and since then the parties responsible for creating the situation are refusing to engage in a dialogue with Qatar to settle the dispute as Qatar has repeatedly expressed.
Qatar believes that there is no other solution for the current Gulf crisis except coming to the table to discuss differences. But under such political evasive attitudes of siege countries, what is the future of the Gulf especially if the crisis prolongs and what are the outcomes and impacts of this crisis, asked Iman Al Hamoud, presenter of 'Gulf Hour, a weekly programme at Monte Carlo Doualiya (MCD), a Paris-based Arabic news radio station.
The programme, aired yesterday, hosted H E Lulwah Rashid Al Khater, the official spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry and Emirati academician Dr Abdul Khaliq Abdullah who admitted the only achievements of the crisis so far are disunity of the Gulf and lack of cooperation between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members for the past two years. He accused Qatar of creating its own path and held it responsible for the continuation of the crisis.
Replying to these allegations Al Khater said that 'those who created this situation and imposed the siege on Qatar, expelled Qataris from their countries and disrupted their education, medical treatments and took away their right to worship in Makkah, broke families and confiscated properties of ordinary citizens, are responsible of the current situation.
Qatar has not been isolated and Gulf is not only Saudi and UAE, she said, adding that Qatar has very good relations with Kuwait and Oman and still taking part in all Gulf events.
Recently Qatar participated in the three summits of Makkah with high-level delegation led by the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, she added.
Qatar expressed its reservation on some point of the final communiqué of the Gulf and Arab summits because the statements mentioned that the Gulf relations are in best condition which is wrong, and refused to discuss or mention the Gulf crisis.
The spokesperson asked during the programme; why the Gulf crisis is not being discussed for the past two years; why Saudi and UAE are trying to present their own differences with other countries as difference of all Arabs and Gulf countries?
One of the worst impact of this Gulf crisis, according to Al Khater is the new generations in the Gulf are growing up without hearing the slogan of 'Our Gulf is One, rather she said 'they are growing up under this crisis and its complications.
Due to lack of mechanisms for settling disputes and internal Gulf differences, the Gulf crisis is being considered by ICJ, WTO and human right rights organisations in Geneva and this is one of the reasons for the failure of the organisation, said Al Khater adding that the GCC system need to be reviewed.
Speaking about the contradiction of blocking countries and their confusion, Al Khater said the blockading counties, which accused Qatar of supporting terrorism, are cooperating with Qatar in this field. Giving example, she said that Qatar had participated in the two meetings of Riyadh based Terrorist Financing Targeting Center which were held in March and May, 2018.
Interesting thing she said was that the statements issued at the end of these meetings praised the role of Qatar in fighting terrorism and its financing, and asked wondering how they accuse Qatar of supporting terrorism and at the same time praise its role in fighting it!
Dr Abdul Khaliq Abdullah explained that the blockading countries accusation is basically related to Qatari support to Muslim Brotherhood which Saudi, UAE and Egypt consider terrorist organisation. This is the first time seeing them specific on what they meant by terrorism, she said. Qatar never supported Muslim Brotherhood or any organisation rather deals with governments, she stressed.
Regarding Dr Al Qaradawi, who is Qatari citizen since more than 40 years, and rulers of these countries who are accusing him being terrorist today they honoured him in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, and how has he suddenly become a terrorist, she asked?
With regard to some allegations related to the funding of 25 Islamic institutions in France, which was mentioned by authors of the French book 'Qatar Papers, Al Khater pointed out that in France there are over 500 mosques, Islamic centres and institutions; whose fund, by over 92 percent, come from the local France community and only around 8 percent comes as foreign support. How much is the Qatari share of this 8 percent foreign fund, she asked.
Qatari support to these mosques was upon request from French governmental bodies and with knowledge and consent of French government she added, noting that these Islamic institutions were established in accordance to French laws and regulations and consent of French government and Qatar has nothing to do with them.
What the authors want is to drag Qatar into French internal dialogues and French internal issues and are looking for making Qatar a scapegoat under the growing influence and power of the far-rights in Europe generally, she stressed.
MENAFN1206201900630000ID1098633003
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.