Names of Qataris financing terrorism listed in Saudi paper

CAIRO – 1 June 2017: The conflict between Arab Gulf states, led by Saudi Arabia, and Qatar has risen to another level. The Gulf has shown no sign of backing down from its stance against Qatar since statements the neighboring country’s leader insulting other Gulf countries and Egypt.

Saudi newspaper Makkah published a report Thursday listing the names of Qatari citizens, many of whom are known to be close to the royal family, who have funded terrorist operations across the world. Some of the names listed are already on terror watch lists in some countries, the report added.

One of those listed as funding terrorism is Abd Al-Rahman Al-Nuaimi. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, Al-Nuaimi ordered the transfer of nearly $600,000 to al-Qaeda in 2013 through Abu-Khalid al-Suri, then al-Qaeda’s representative in Syria. Nuaimi “reportedly oversaw the transfer of over $2 million per month to al-Qa'ida in Iraq for a period of time,” the Treasury report added.

The other name on the list is Khalifa al-Sebeiy, who was convicted in absentia by a Bahraini court of financing al-Qaeda leaders in Pakistan and the Middle East and helping in moving the organization’s terror to South Asia.

In 2011, the U.S. Treasury Department also designated Abdullah Khowar and Salem al-Kawary, both of whom live in Qatar, accusing them of providing “financial and logistical support” to al-Qaeda.

Brothers Ashraf and Abdul Malek Abdul Salam, Jordanian citizens with Qatari nationality, were accused of financing Jabhat al-Nusra and al-Qaeda and designated as terrorists by the U.S. in 2014. Their father, Abu Abdul Aziz al-Qatari, is considered a founder of Syrian militia Jund al-Aqsa.

Also on the list from Makkah are Ibrahim Eissa al-Bakr, a Qatari citizen known as Abu Khalil who was accused by the U.S. of raising funds for al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and Saad al-Koabi and Abdul Latif al-Kawary, Qatari citizens who were designated as terrorists for supporting Jabhat al-Nusra and Qaeda.