Qatar’s foreign policy must change: UAE Foreign Minister

CAIRO – 6 June 2017: UAE’s Foreign Minister Anwar Al Karkash has stated that it is time for Qatar to change and restructure its foreign policy as several states including Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Egypt have suffered from security breaches that have threatened the region as a result of Doha’s political stance.

Karkash expressed his view that the recent punitive procedures that have been taken against Qatar are a result of an accumulation of Qatar’s recent actions in the region, where the Gulf nation has provided considerable material and logistic support to extremist groups such as Islamic State, Al-Nusra Front and others.

There are clear material proofs that Qatar has backed regional Islamic terrorism, including paying ransom money to militant groups in Syria and Iraq in order to disguise its financial support of terrorism.

The Emirati Foreign Minister stated that the Qatari head of state Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani betrayed commitments to cooperate with other Gulf states on matters of regional security following a 2014 agreement, leading to a downturn in political relations between the Arab nations. Additionally, Qatar’s stance undermines understandings that were reached in the recent Arab-Islamic-American Summit in Riyadh which aimed to combat extremist violence in the region.

Karkash hopes that Doha will remain a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council although this will depend on Qatar’s vision for the future, as to whether it will deny the crisis or it will accept accountability for past mistakes.