Qatar: Sponsor of Transnational Terrorism “Qatar’s Appropriations for Extremist Groups (2)”

Cairo – For decades, Qatar has been regarded as a sponsor state of terrorist groups, such as Al-Qaeda, ISIS, the Brotherhood and Ansar Al-Sharia in Libya, and empowered them to carry out terrorist acts around the world.

Al-Qaeda is one the terrorist groups that received funds from Qatar. According to the Telegraph, Qatari businessmen have been involved in funding Al-Nusra Front and providing its militants with weapons.

In 2013, Qatar has launched a campaign on social networking websites to stay in touch with Al-Nusra Front leaders and manage the transfer of funds to them. But in 2015, mass media uncovered this scandal, prompting the Qatari regime to suspend its campaign.

Qatar is blamed for the rise of ISIS and other terrorist groups in the Middle East region. Libya, for instance, was divided after its government allied itself with Qatar-funded Fajr Libya and Ansar Al-Sharia terrorist groups that stood behind the assassination of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens following the storming of the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi in 2012.

Qatar publically announce its support for Ahrar Al-Sham Front and other armed groups in Syria, especially Islamist ones . In fact, Qatar’s support for terrorist groups has taken several forms, but what is clear is that all warring Islamist groups in Syria have benefitted from Qatar’s support.

Some reports indicated that Member of the Qatari royal family Abdul Karim Al-Thani operated a safe house for Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, the founder of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, later known as ISIS. With regard to the Brotherhood, it received unprecedented support from the Qatari regime, which felt no shame to host the group’s fugitive leaders after being convicted on charges of terrorism and incitement of violence in their countries.

Pro-Terror Policy and International Confrontation:

Qatar has repeatedly announced its intention to continue supporting terrorist groups, challenging the international community, as well as Arab and international coalitions, which have been formed to fight terrorist groups.

Four Arab countries, namely Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain , issued a joint statement, designating 59 individuals and 12 entities with links to Qatar as terrorists.

On June 5, Saudi Arabia decided to cut off diplomatic and consular ties with Qatar and severed land, sea and air contact with the Gulf statelet, considering this issue a sovereignty right guaranteed by the international law. A Saudi official said Riyadh took this decision as part of its bids to deter Qatar form supporting terrorist groups and to protect the kingdom’s national security against threats of terrorism and extremism. Under the boycotting decision, the kingdom barred Qatari airplanes from flying over Saudi territories and urged friendly countries and international partners to take a similar stance towards Qatar as soon as possible.

Saudi Arabia said it took this decisive decision after the Qatari authorities committed flagrant violations throughout the past years with the aim of driving a wedge and inciting violence in the kingdom, as well as harming its sovereignty. In doing so, Qatar has provided shelter for various terrorist and sectarian groups, such as the Brotherhood, ISIS and Al-Qaeda. The Gulf statelet also used its media platforms to foment sedition and support activities of Iranian-backed terrorist groups in the Qatif province of Saudi Arabia.

Similarly, Bahrain has issued an official statement, severing diplomatic relations with the Gulf statelet of Qatar due to the latter’s determination to undermine Manama’s security and stability and to interfere in its domestic affairs, as well as financing armed groups associated with Iran to carry out subversive attacks and spread chaos in the kingdom in flagrant violation of all agreements, covenants and principles of international law without any regard to values, law, morals or consideration of the principles of good neighborliness or pledge to the premises of Gulf relation.

Under the boycotting decision, Bahrain withdrew its diplomatic mission from Doha and gave the Qatari diplomatic mission 48 hours to leave the kingdom. Qatari residents and visitors were also given 14 days to leave Bahrain for security reasons. The Bahraini government also banned its citizens from traveling to Qatar or staying there, regretting that Qatari citizens are not allowed to enter or transit through Bahrain.

Following suit of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, the UAE decided to sever diplomatic ties with Qatar and gave the Qatari diplomatic mission 48 hours to leave the UAE. For its part, the Saudi-led Arab coalition in Yemen has suspended Qatar’s participation in the ongoing military operations in Yemen, accusing Doha of supporting Al-Qaeda and ISIS militias.

Libyan Foreign Minister Mohammed Al-Dairi also announced his country’s decision to sever ties with Qatar in solidarity with the Kingdom of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt.

In the framework of Qatar’s pro-terrorism policy, several reports confirmed the Gulf statelet’s involvement in supporting the Palestinian Hamas movement and other Islamist groups, which have been placed by many countries, including Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, on the terrorism lists over the past 10 years.

From 2003 to 2010, WikiLeaks, a non-profit organization that publishes submissions from anonymous whistleblowers, released 251,287 diplomatic cables; most of them were issued by embassies and consulates in the Middle East, including 536 cables on Qatar and Hamas, and 70 on Qatar’s funding of terrorism.

In 2007, former Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad told the U.S. Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence Stuart Levey that Qatar offers “more support to fundamentalists than Kuwait or Saudi Arabia” and is “willfully bad” on issues related to financing Islamist terror organizations. Hamas, the main rival of Fatah, from which Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas hails, was designated as a terrorist group by the European Union and the US.

Documents leaked from the email of former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton in 2009 uncovered Qatar’s strong relations with Iran. The classified documents also showed that Tehran has a presence in the Gaza strip, which is ruled by Hamas since 2007.

Egyptian Journalist and Member of Parliament, Dr. Abdel Rehim Ali is an expert on Islamist Movements and political Islam. This essay is adapted from his upcoming book “Qatar: The Destabilizer of the Middle East: The Full Story of Grand Conspiracy,” which will be published later this month.