Qatar funds terrorists through charitable societies: MPs

CAIRO – 24 November 2017: Qatar and Turkey fund terrorist organizations in the region through charitable societies, secretary of House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Committee, Tarek el-Kholy, stated on Thursday.

Kholy said that the declaration of these charitable societies proves that the Quartet continues in revealing Qatar's support for terrorism.

The Quartet consists of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab of Emirates and Bahrain issued a statement names both entities the International Islamic coordinating council and the World Union for Muslim Scholars as a terrorist organizations, and another 11 individuals.

On the 11 terrorist elements that were added to terror list, the undersecretary of Parliament's Committee for Defense and National Security, Yahya al-Kedwani said that some of them issued fatwas that incites killing Egyptian soldiers, and gave the green light to the terrorist groups to implement their operations, pointing out that these names involved in the shedding of innocent blood and abuse of Islamic law.

The inclusion of these elements and charitable societies list within the terror list will force Qatar to impose restrictions on the movements and actions of these figures, Said al-Lundi, expert in the international affairs said.

Since June 5, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have turned on Qatar with a complete air and trade boycott over allegations of its support and sponsorship of terrorism. Doha denies those allegations.

Following the Arab boycott of Doha, a list of 13-demands was handed to Doha’s government by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain for reconciliation, which includes the closing of Al Jazeera broadcasting and the suspension of its cozy relationship with the extremist government of Iran.

The Arab countries (Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain) issued six principles in a joint statement in Cairo recently:

1.Commitment to combat extremism and terrorism in all its forms and to prevent their financing or the provision of safe havens.

2. Prohibiting all acts of incitement and all forms of expression which spread, incite, promote or justify hatred and violence.

3. Full commitment to Riyadh Agreement 2013 and the supplementary agreement and its executive mechanism for 2014 within the framework of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) for Arab States.

4. Commitment to all the outcomes of the Arab-Islamic-U.S. Summit held in Riyadh in May 2017.

5. To refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of States and from supporting illegal entities.

6. The responsibility of all states in the international community to confront all forms of extremism and terrorism as a threat to international peace and security.