Dubai: The UAE on Thursday said many countries in the West understand Qatar’s activities in supporting terror and providing safe haven to extremists.
“Our understanding is many governments in the West do understand in operational terms what the Qataris have been doing,” Omar Saif Gobash, UAE ambassador to Russia said in an interview with the BBC on Thursday.
He was referring to Qatar’s support to terrorist groups, propagating extremist agendas in the Middle East and meddling in the internal affairs of their neighbours.
The ambassador confirmed that the UAE government has voice and video recordings that prove Qatar’s dealing with terror groups across the Middle East. He revealed a serious incident in which Qatar officials gave the terror network Al Qaida in Yemen the exact location of the UAE forces, which were planning to attack the terrorist group.
"We have had Emirati soldiers dying as a result of Qatari activities," says UAE's @OmarSaifGhobash pic.twitter.com/gORHGMnjf9
— BBC HARDtalk (@BBCHARDtalk) July 20, 2017
“We were in the process of engaging with Al Qaida [in Yemen]. We have information … that our Qatari allies informed Al Qaida of our precise location and what we were planning to do. Then we received four suicide bombers at our door and we were injured,” he said, adding that the UAE government has voice and video recordings.
“We have video evidence that we’ve managed to pick up in the field, whether that is in Libya, in Yemen. [of] people giving instructions, known individuals giving instructions to known individuals in Libya, Yemen and Syria on carrying out certain acts,” he affirmed.
“Everybody knows for the last few years Qatar has had a close relationship with Al Nusra, which is referred to as Al Qaida affiliated,” the ambassador said.
He said the four Arab countries boycotting Qatar — Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt, stand by the 13 demands that Qatar must stop supporting terrorist and extremist groups, stop meddling in the affairs of other countries and stop the incitement and propagation of hatred. He said the world understand these demands and the four countries expect the international community to stand by those demands.
He said the boycotting states preferred to keep the list of the 13 demands confidential in order not to embarrass the Qatari side.
“We engaged in a confidential manner in passing on their demands. This is the same reason why in 2013 and 2014 the [Riyadh] agreements we signed with Qatar were also kept confidential and secret on the request of the Qataris government. In the spirit of preserving the face of the Qataris we kept the demands secret,” adding that it was the Qatari side which leaked the list to the media. He also denied that there was any hacking of Qatari media outlets, like Doha claimed.
