Egypt demands UN investigation into Qatar's $1bn hostage ransom deal

CAIRO – 8 June 2017: Egypt urged the United Nations Security Council to investigate accusations that Qatar paid ransom of up to $1 billion to terrorist militias in Iraq, Reuters reported Thursday.

"It is everywhere in the news that Qatar paid up to $1 billion to a terrorist group active in Iraq in order to release members of its royal family," senior Egyptian U.N. diplomat Ihab Moustafa Awad Moustafa told the Security Council, according to Reuters.

Qatar has been denying the allegations since April. It is accused of paying ransom to jihadists to secure the release of 26 kidnapped Qataris, including members of the royal family. The Qataris were released in April, eighteen months after being abducted by gunmen in Iraq.

Currently serving as Chair of the Counter-Terrorism Committee in the U.N. is Amr Abdellatif Aboulatta, former assistant foreign minister and head of the Diplomatic Personnel Department in Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Aboulatta has been Egypt's ambassador and Permanent Representative to the U.N. since 2014.