Former CIA affirms Qatar’s ties with terrorist groups

CAIRO – 28 July 2017: Michael Morell, former deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Yousef al-Otaiba, the United Arab Emirates Ambassador to the U.S. appeared on Charlie Rose on Wednesday on PBS, the U.S. public broadcasting service, to discuss the Qatar crisis.

Morell said that the tiny Gulf state wanted to have a foreign policy that was outsized for itself, adding that “they looked around and said ‘where can we make a difference?’ And one of the areas that was open was talking to these groups that the rest of us won’t talk to, and they saw an opportunity to play a role with that.”

“They are also supporting them and others with money and arms, including Al Nusra Front another designated terrorist organization of the U.S. in Syria, so clear -clear support of terrorist groups,” Morell said.

As for The Muslim Brotherhood, he said that the United States looked at it hard, and it doesn’t see it as a terrorist group although they (Arab quartet) have a different story to say: “It is absolutely an organization that wants, we think, through political means, to impose a particular way of life on the populations throughout the Middle East, and Qatar supports those organizations.”

The UAE ambassador to the United States spoke of Qatar's support over the past 15 years for terrorist groups such as militias in Syria, in Libya, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Taliban and Hamas.

"Inside Doha, you have the Hamas leadership, you have a Taliban embassy, you have the Muslim Brotherhood leadership, you have groups going on Al Jazeera everyday promoting and justifying suicide bombings,” the UAE Ambassador said.

Al-Otaiba said Qatar had breached its commitments that had been approved by Gulf nations and made frequent violations of its agreements since similar talks took place amid the intra-Gulf crisis in 2013 and 2014.

On June 5, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain severed ties with Qatar on charges of supporting extremists and funding terrorist groups. The Arab quartet demanded Qatar to stop harboring terrorists and cut funds given to terrorist groups, but Doha refused the 13 demands’ list.