Boycott of Qatar is ‘legitimate sovereign decision’

GENEVA: The Arab Quartet has insisted that the measures they have taken against Qatar are “legitimate sovereign decisions”.

The four nations — Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates — in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), said the measures cannot be considered a “blockade” by any means, but rather “a boycott emanating from the harm caused by irresponsible Doha actions through its support, financing and harbouring of terrorist elements.”

The statement was issued in Swiss city on behalf of the quartet by the UAE Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Obaid Salem Al Za’abi, in response to a speech by Qatar’s foreign minister during a panel discussion on the Qatari crisis during the current session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday.

Shaikh Mohammad Bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani claimed that the Qatari people have been harmed by the “illegal siege” enforced by the four countries.

Al Za’abi refuted the charge, saying that senior Qatari officials had in fact been strutting around with a “business as usual” attitude and projecting the impression that the boycott had little effect on them.

“In our opinion, these contradictions adopted by Qatari policy decision-makers reflecting dualism of speech, explain that there are two tones of address in Qatar, one addressing the domestic public and the other refuting the international viewpoints aiming to unveil the real reasons behind the boycott,” he said.

The quartet severed diplomatic relations with Qatar in early June for Doha harbouring extremists and supporting or financing terrorist organisations.

Al Za’abi said the Qatari delegation’s effort to push forward the matter for the second time on the same day only showed that Qatar “did not have any intention to review and change its policies and positions in support of terrorism and extremism.”

Despite an attempt by the Emir of Kuwait to mediate between his feuding allies, Qatar has repeatedly thumbed its nose on the quartet and flaunted its closer ties with Iran.

Iran has been sowing chaos and violence in the Mideast region, supporting militias such as the Al Houthis of Yemen, the Hezbollah of Lebanon, and the brutal regime of Bashar Al Assad in Syria, the quartet say.