CAIRO – 23 March 2018: On March 22, Qatar announced it had designated 28 people and entities as “terrorists”, including several Qatari nationals already blacklisted by the Anti-Terrorism Quartet (ATQ) of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Bahrain.

UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash posted on Twitter, “The Qatari Ministry if Interior placed 19 individuals and eight entities on a terrorism list, 10 of which were already included in the ATQ’s three terrorism lists.”

“Apart from its obstinacy, Qatar is confirming the evidence against it and that its support for extremism and terrorism is the core of its crisis.”

أصدرت وزارة الداخلية القطرية قائمة للإرهاب تضمنت 19 شخصاً و8 كيانات، وتضمنت القائمة 10 أشخاص ممن تم إدراجهم سابقاً في القوائم الثلاث التي أصدرتها دول المقاطعة. بعيدا عن المكابرة قطر تؤكد الأدلة ضدها وأن دعمها للتطرف والإرهاب جوهر أزمتها.

— د. أنور قرقاش (@AnwarGargash) March 22, 2018

On June 5, the ATQ severed their ties with Qatar over its support to terrorist groups and having close relations with the regional foe, Iran.

Qatari Abdel Rahman Omair Rashd al-Nuaimi, placed on the sanctions list by the U.S. Treasury for terrorism financing, has now also been placed on the Qatari list.

According to the U.S., Nuaimi supported al-Qaeda in Syria with large sums of money, and also financed al- Qaeda in Iraq in 2001.

Click for more info about Nuaimi

Other Qatari individuals placed on the list include Saad bin Saad Mohammed al-Kaabi; Abdullatif bin Abdullah al-Kuwari; Ibrahim Eissa Al-Hajji Mohammed Al-Baker; Mubarak Mohammed al-Ajji; Khalid Saeed al-Bounein; Rachid Salem Rachid; Mohmmed Faysal Hamad Al-Suaidi; Mohammed Jaber Salim Meshaab; Abdullah Soliman Saad and Abdullah Shaker Shams Al-Deen Al-Shaibani.

The Qatari list also included eight entities, including the Islamic State's Sinai Province in Egypt and Al-Ihsan Charitable Society in Yemen. Al-Ihsan is a charitable organization, led by alleged al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), and supported by Abdullah Mohammed al-Yazidi.

According to Qatari Leaks, named on the new Qatari list were two Qatari citizens who were described by the boycotting countries as financiers of the militant Nusra Front group fighting in Syria.

Qatar had listed 13 alleged Al Qaeda and Daesh militants in October in a joint move with the United States and five other Gulf Arab states, including the boycotters.

Move comes a “bit too late”:

“To be sure, the move by Qatar is to be welcomed, but what took so long? Why the procrastination? Why was Doha in denial?” A Qatari Leaks editorial wondered.

The editorial said the Qatari government did not take this move out of goodness of its hear, for the move has to do with the isolation that started to negatively affect the small Gulf emirate.

Moreover, pressure from the Trump administration to resolve the crisis with Qatar’s neighbors, according to Qatari Leaks, made Qatar take this step.

“In Geneva recently, jurists from the Arab Federation for Human Rights expressed their opposition to Qatar’s continuing backing of extremist organizations,” the website added. “They warned that silence on Qatar’s practices sends a wrong message to victims of terrorism. The federation’s words have to be seen in the context of what we have witnessed in our region for the past two decades.”

It also added that the spread of extremist ideology, and the terrorist actions it spawns, represents an “existential threat to nations; it endangers the most basic of rights, which is the right to life.”

“In the face of all this, most countries in the region have come together to combat this threat. Unfortunately, Qatar has consistently chosen not to be part of the solution and has, instead, tried to fan the flames of extremism. But there is a price to pay for this type of intransigence.”

“While some sort of realisation seems to have dawned in Doha, the government’s move has come a bit too late,” the editorial concluded.