Qatar uses its airlines to achieve political goals

Indian Khaled

As COVID-19 pandemic exacerbates in Qatar, amidst failure of the Doha regime to contain its repercussions, the Qatari regime is seeking to make gains from the crisis. The coronavirus infected cases are on the rise in Qatar, which has a population of a round two million people.

Qatar Airways has been evacuating nationals of world countries despite international warnings against the spread of the coronavirus infections. However, the Doha regime paid a deaf ear to these warnings carrying passengers and coronavirus infections worldwide.

QatariLeaks said in a report on April 16 that the Qatari regime deliberately continued flights in an attempt to make diplomatic gains against its other countries in the region that opted for the safety of their citizens.

The report said that Qatar Airways transported 17,000 passengers as part of evacuation on the back of the coronavirus, noting that the Qatari government had overrated the number of passengers evacuated to one million people.

Turkey’s civil aviation authority suspended on March 27 all international flights according to a decree by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, except for Qatar Airways.

Erdogan’s decree urged MP Burhanuddin Polot of the Republican People’s Party to question the matter, saying what is the secret of excluding Qatar Airways?

“Why were all the companies suspended, while the civil aviation authority excluded Qatar?” Polot wondered.

MP Polot asked Minister of Transport Adil Karaismailoglu about the reasons for continuing flights with Qatar.

The MP added that those wishing to come to Turkey from other countries were forced to return to Turkey through from Qatar, where more than 5,000 cases of coronavirus were reported.

Saudi political analyst Khaled al-Zaatar said the Qatari regime has wrongly dealt with the coronavirus crisis as it carries infected passengers from Iran to Lebanon and mistreat the infected citizens at home due to the absence of health services.

Al-Zaatar said in a tweet that Qatar is trying to politicize the coronavirus pandemic.