Qatar is Iran’s regional agent: Former Foreign Minister

CAIRO – 2 September 2017: “Qatar gives Iran a chance to interfere into the Arab world’s affairs,” Egypt’s former Foreign Minister Mohamed Orabi told Saudi-owned Al-Riyadh newspaper on Saturday.

In his interview with Al-Riyadh, Orabi stated that Iran has exploited Qatar to interfere into different countries’ domestic affairs in the region such as Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

Orabi said Qatar had opened a liaison office in Tel Aviv so as to maintain Doha’s relationship with Israel and Hamas, adding that Qatar has taken advantage of its economic and financial resources to play a key role in regional countries.

“Doha has sought to empower itself through boosting cooperation with the most influential powers in the world. It embraces regional and international military bases and maintains relations with the United States, Iran and Turkey,” Orabi stressed.

Orabi anticipated that Arab quartet’s crisis with Qatar “may take time to be settled,” wondering “how many Syrians should die or flee their country in favor of changing Bashar al-Assad’s regime.”

“I believe the best solution for the Syrian crisis is forming an interim government,” Orabi stressed.

Orabi, who heads the electoral campaign of Moushira Khattab to the UNESCO chairmanship, said nomination of four Arabs for the same post “reflects the difficulty to take a unified decision by Arabs, while the African countries succeeded to take a unified action.”

Egyptian ambassador Moushira Khattab is one of nine potential candidates running for the post of UNESCO’s Director-General in a 2017 tour to succeed Irina Bokova. Qatar, Iraq and Lebanon have nominated candidates for the same post.

Orabi doubted the credibility of the UNESCO if the upcoming Director-General becomes a Qatari citizen, adding, “this state [Qatar] supports terrorism so how can I trust it then?”
For the Palestinian crisis, the former FM criticized the internal disputes among the Palestinian factions most notably between Hamas and Fatah, revealing that the rich-oil state has taken contradictory actions regarding the Palestinian cause.

Orabi denied suggesting giving a visit to the Israeli Parliament [Knesset], praising the current Egyptian foreign policy. “The Egyptian-Saudi relations are solid and unique despite frequent disputes between the two countries.”

The outlawed Muslim Brotherhood lost its influence on the ground, although it still enjoys many resources to bring them back to the arena, Orabi said.

Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Algeria are the current cornerstones that bring out Arab cohesion, while Syria and Iraq played a key role in the past in unifying the Arab fabric, Orabi explained.