Rabat – The United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Anwar Gargash, expressed his frustration with Qatar on Wednesday in a series of tweets where he bemoaned the protracted crisis in the Gulf.
Accusing Qatar of not practicing the values that it preaches, Gargash said “We have to go on without Qatar.”
Barring Qatar’s review of past policies, current state will continue for a while. New regional relationships will emerge & strengthen.
— ?. ???? ????? (@AnwarGargash) July 26, 2017
“Barring Qatar’s review of past policies,” he tweeted, “current state will continue for a while. New regional relationships will emerge and strengthen.”
Gargash urged followers to “think of it as a new set of relations in Gulf replacing the old ones.”
Now that Qatar crisis has taken so long, important to look beyond “crisis” & think of it as new set of relations in Gulf replacing old ones.
— ?. ???? ????? (@AnwarGargash) July 26, 2017
On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt released a joint statement containing an additional list of 18 organizations and individuals it considers to be terrorist or terrorist-related. The bloc has alleged that all 18 have links to Qatar.
According to the statement, the list named nine charity and media groups and nine individuals it accused of being “directly or indirectly linked to Qatari authorities.” It added that the bloc and its global allies will work to make certain that Qatar “has ceased its support and funding of terrorism, has stopped welcoming terrorists and has stopped spreading extremist and hate speech.”
Qatar’s response, as it has maintained throughout the crisis, was to denounce the new list as baseless.
In a statement released by Qatar’s communications director, Sheikh Saif bin Ahmed Al Thani, he expressed his dismay at the continuation of what he calls a “smear campaign.”
“It comes as a disappointing surprise,” he said, “that the bloc countries are still pursuing this story as part of their smear campaign against Qatar.”
Al Thani added that “This latest list provides further evidence that the blockading countries are not committed to the fight against terrorism… All individuals with links to terrorism in Qatar have been prosecuted.”
After meeting with US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson in Washington DC on Wednesday, Qatar’s Foreign Minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani stated that “It was noticed that the blockade states did not react to the suggestions made by the US Secretary of State.”
