Rabat – Germany’s Foreign Minister, Sigmar Gabriel, has offered the services of its intelligence community to help clarify the accusations leveled against Qatar by a Saudi-led bloc of four neighboring countries.
On the eve of the G20 Summit, Gabriel spoke with Deutschland radio on Thursday, saying that Qatar has agreed to “open all its books” to Germany’s intelligence service to provide investigators with information regarding “certain people or structures.”
On June 5, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt announced they were severing all diplomatic ties with their Gulf neighbour.
Accusations against Qatar include a claim that the country has been “providing financial support” to terrorist organizations, including the Muslim Brotherhood, al Qaeda and ISIS. Qatar has vigorously denied the accusations from the onset of the crisis, garnering a good deal of international support.
On June 22, the bloc countries presented Qatar with its list of demands for ending the crisis. They included the closure of government-funded network, Al Jazeera, the dismantling of a Turkish military base inside of Qatar, a cooling down in relations with Gulf enemy, Iran, and an immediate cessation of financial support for terrorist organizations.
Calling the list unworkable and claiming it was deliberately formulated to be impossible to comply with, Qatar sent its official rejection of the list to mediator, Kuwait, on Wednesday.
Following a meeting in Cairo to discuss the crisis, the four bloc countries accused Qatar of “continuing to seek to sabotage and undermine the security and stability in the Gulf region.”
The bloc warned of further, promising that “all political, economic and legal measures will be taken in the manner and at the time deemed appropriate to preserve the four countries’ rights, security and stability.”
