QATAR: Qatar dismissed allegations of support for militancy on Friday after four Arab states, which cut ties with Qatar earlier this week, put the emirate on a “terror finance watch list”.
“The recent joint statement issued by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the UAE regarding a ‘terror finance watch list’ once again reinforces baseless allegations that hold no foundation in fact,” a Qatari government statement said.
“Our position on countering terrorism is stronger than many of the signatories of the joint statement – a fact that has been conveniently ignored by the authors.”
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain led a string of countries that this week cut ties with Qatar over what they say is the emirate´s financing of extremist groups and its ties to Iran, Saudi Arabia´s regional arch-rival.
On Thursday the four countries issued a list of individuals and entities they said had “terrorist” links to Qatar, in their first joint statement since severing ties with Doha.
The group said the list shows Qatar “announces fighting terrorism on one hand and finances and supports and hosts different terrorist organisations on the other hand.”
But the document contains at least two names already designated internationally as terrorist financiers, and against whom Qatar took action, according to a previous US Department of State report.
Qatar strongly denied the earlier allegations and expressed a willingness to engage in talks to resolve the crisis.
