UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt refute Qatar's allegations

Obaid Salem Al Za’abi, UAE Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other international organisations in Geneva, delivered the following statement on behalf of the United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Bahrain and Arab Republic of Egypt, in response to the allegations made by the Qatari Minister of Foreign Affairs in his address before the thirty-sixth regular session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, on Monday.

The right of reply statement reads: Mr. President, The United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Bahrain and Arab Republic of Egypt use the right of reply to the attempts of distorting the facts mentioned by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Qatar in his address before the thirty-sixth regular session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, on Monday.

The Qatari address signals the continuous approach adopted by Qatar to mislead the international public opinion in regards to the political crisis and its policy of denying the fact of its support for terrorism and extremism, as well as funding and promoting the rhetoric of hatred and sedition, along with interference in the internal affairs of other states.

It is not correct as the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Qatar claimed that they back human rights and the right of self-determination of peoples. This confirms that allegations made by the Qatari minister that the Government of Qatar is ready for dialogue are nothing more than an attempt to polish its image before the international community and world public opinion, without any change in its hostile policy.

The Qatar deception has even harmed international organisations, a matter that prompted the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to issue a statement on 30th June, 2017, in which he expressed deep regret for the misleading reports in the Qatari media outlets.

We emphasise the necessity for Qatar to refrain from supporting extremist ideologies and terrorists thoughts as well as spreading the message of hatred and incitement of violence, which has been doing systematically since years. Over the past 20 years, Qatar established a platform for sponsoring and supporting extremism and terrorism by providing financial support, safe shelter and promoting terrorist ideology and individuals representing that ideology, who some of them were designated in the international list of terrorism, which didn't only harm many governments and people in the region, but also peoples of other countries.

''And it evidently that a group of sisterly and friendly countries outside the Middle East have taken similar measures against Qatar. We also underscore that terrorism is a well known concept that any one carries arms and explosives and terrorises innocent people is a terrorist; any one who incites him, supports, funds and provides safe haven is a terrorist like him. This contradicts collective international counter-terrorism efforts.

Mr. President, The Minister for Foreign Affairs of Qatar should have rather used this international platform to declare his country's commitment to halting support to terrorism as demanded by our countries, instead of briefing this esteemed Council, about baseless and untrue allegations and claims.

There is no such thing as what Qatar so-calls "blockade". Its sea and aviation ports are open to all countries, except for the boycott countries, who took the measure as a sovereign right against Qatar's hostile policies and after exhausting all available means and exercising patience for years, towards policies that do not conform to the principle of good neighbourliness.

While the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Qatar comes to talk about the Council about the impact of the boycott, Qatari institutions boast that there are no effects of the boycott by the four countries and that life is normal there. This shows the amount of contradictions by Qatar and its institutions. And while these institutions completely ignore the decisions made by our countries in consideration to humanitarian cases for the joint families and for the brotherly people of Qatar.

At the conclusion, we regret that the statement by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Qatar lacked wisdom. His statement does not express genuine intentions to respond positively to the mediation efforts made by His Highness the Amir of brotherly Kuwait, nor does it express readiness to understand the concerns of the four countries who have been harmed by such hostile policies.