Bahrain reveals information on Qatar-linked terror funding

CAIRO – 9 August 2017: New evidence of Qatar’s involvement in the financing of terrorist acts targeting Arab and Gulf nations was revealed on Monday by the Bahraini security services.

A Qatari businessman was linked to the Bahrain bomb attack that killed two policemen in 2015. According to information received by Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, some financial statements fell in the hands of Bahrini security showing transactions sent from a Qatari businessman to the deputy leader of the dissolved Al-Wefaq Association, which is convicted for terror funding.

In a previously published interview with Arab Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Bahraini Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Bin Abdullah Al-Khalifa affirmed that “Qatar's policies endanger the security of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).”

He added that Doha’s policy of hosting terrorist and extremist groups threatens the Gulf area.





Al-Khalifa accused Qatar of intervening in Bahrain’s internal affairs through funding terrorist and extremist ideologies inside the kingdom.

The minister said that the most significant forms of Qatar’s intervention in his country’s affairs are exporting an extremist ideology and training Bahraini nationals to use weapons, explosives and field skills in order to support terrorism in Bahrain.

Bahrain is part of an Arab anti-terror quartet led by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE—all of which have cut diplomatic ties with Qatar and imposed economic sanctions, accusing it of funding terrorism – a claim Qatar rejects. They also closed their airspace and seaports to Qatari transportation.

Qatar’s relations with several Arab states have been strained since May 24 over a leaked statement, attributed to Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad, criticizing Gulf foreign policy with Iran, which he described as “unwise”.

The Arab quartet issued 13 demands to Doha – then shortened to six principles – including closing Al Jazeera television, curbing relations with Iran and shutting down a Turkish military base.