A lifeline to Al Qaeda:Qatari ransom is reviving hostage-taking market in Yemen

Qatar does not stop supporting, financing and sponsoring terrorism. The Paris Forum for Peace and Development issued a report on the Doha financing of terrorism in Yemen, based on political, human and security sources.

Country support for al-Qaeda

The report pointed out that the Qatari regime was involved in financing and supporting the terrorist organization al-Qaeda financially and logistically through various means, the most important of which is the payment of ransom amounts under the name liberating the kidnappers from al-Qaeda, as happened in Yemen and Iraq.

According to the sources upon which the report was based, the Qatari regime paid al-Qaeda in Yemen nearly $20 million in exchange for the release of the Swiss hostage Silvia Abrahat in March 2012, as well as other separate funds received by tribal elders and military leaders affiliated with the Yemeni Reform Party – the Brotherhood’s arm in the country.

Doha: The lifeline of terrorism

Abdel Salam Al-Soudi, the Executive Director of the National Center for Human Rights, said that the ransom of $20 million was “a lifeline” for the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda, to move and carry out its terrorist operations again.

While the director of the International Agency for Press and Strategic Studies Jamal Al-Awadi, confirms that Qatar provided support to al-Qaeda in Yemen with an amount of $ 20 million, under the pretext of a ransom, and a Swiss rescue that the organization had kidnapped.

Doha was not satisfied with building relationships and supporting al-Qaeda in Yemen, but instead built an international terrorist network from Afghanistan to Yemen through Pakistan, Syria and Libya, relying on its previous relations with the leaders of the first ranks of al-Qaeda, which was distributed in several countries with the wave of Arab Spring revolutions.

Hostage market rebound

Al-Awadi continued, in press statements, that direct and indirect Qatari support was the most important support channel for the organization in Yemen, as support was represented in providing Doha ransom money in exchange for the release of kidnappers at the organization, which led tribal elders and security and military figures to practice kidnappings as a profitable profession by selling the kidnappers to Al Qaeda.

In February 2013, the Qatar News Agency reported that the Swiss hostage, Silvia Eberhat, who was kidnapped in Yemen on March 14, 2012, arrived at Doha Airport after it was liberated with the intervention of Qatar, without specifying the exact circumstances of her release.

That process almost led to a crisis and a break between Yemen and Doha, due to the unacceptable behavior carried out by the Qatari delegation, and on the same day, the delegation returned to Sanaa airport to leave for Doha with the Qatari ambassador and the Swiss citizenship, which the ambassador defined as his advisor.