Doha hides dark side from int’l community: Saudi FM

CAIRO – 23 February 2013: The Saudi Foreign Minister, Adel al-Jubeir said on Friday that Qatar is not how it presents itself to the international community. “It hides its dark side which calls for and supports terrorism,” he added.

During his speech at the Foreign Relations Committee of the European Parliament on Friday, Jubeir addressed different issues including Qatar, Iran and the Syrian crises. He said that the Arab quartet (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE) only demands from Doha to stop financing terrorism and stick to the Gulf and Arabian principals.

Talking about the Iranian nuclear agreement, Jubeir affirmed that it needs to be amended as it suffers of several deficiencies. “We will support any agreements to control Iran’s nuclear capabilities, and guaranteeing firm inspection mechanism including punitive measures,” the Saudi minster said.

He assured that the Kingdom’s stance is compatible with the U.S. in regards to this issue.

Al-Jubeir said that the Kingdom believes that the only solution in Syria should be political, along with the necessity of controlling violence in order to allow humanitarian aid to reach civilians.

On February 20, Jubeir said in Vienna on the sidelines of a meeting with the Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl, that if Qatar stopped funding terrorism, the Arab quartet will definitely be ready to restore normal ties with it.

On June 5, Qatar was hit by its biggest diplomatic crisis in years after multiple Arab nations, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E. and Bahrain cut diplomatic ties with Doha and imposed economic sanctions, accusing it of funding terrorism, a claim Qatar rejects. The Arab Quartet halted all land, air and sea traffic to and from Qatar and withdrew their diplomats and ambassadors from the country.

The Arab quartet issued 13 demands to Doha – then shortened them to six principles - which included turning down the provocative voice of its news channel, Aljazeera, curbing relations with Iran and not to intervene the domestic issues of Arab nations.
The demands were met by Doha's procrastination, which aborted all attempts of middling to solve the dispute.