Late Kuwaiti MP accused Qatar of conspiracy against Kuwait

CAIRO – 10 June 2017: Kuwaiti social media activists circulated an old video clip showing late Kuwaiti politician Nabil al-Fadhl speaking about Qatar’s ties with the Muslim Brotherhood on Friday.

In the clip currently available on YouTube, Fadhl accused Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, Qatar's outgoing foreign minister, former prime minister and member of the Qatari ruling family, of involvement in a conspiracy to empower the Muslim Brotherhood in the region. He highlighted the relationship between Bin Jassim and known Brotherhood affiliate Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) which was designated as a terrorist organization by the U.A.E. in 2014 on grounds of its support to the Brotherhood. He also added that the Qatari channel Al-Jazeera aimed to destabilize Kuwait.

He concluded, "Damn Hamad bin Jassim, damn Al-Jazeera and damn Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Long live my country."

Fadhl, 66, was a Kuwaiti politician and a member of the Kuwaiti National Assembly. He was also a columnist at the Qatari Al-Watan newspaper.

He started his career in the field of aviation, where he worked as a civil pilot at Kuwait Airways. He later worked in local newspapers as a journalist, eventually becoming a member of the Kuwaiti Journalists Syndicate.

Fadl was elected to the Kuwaiti National Assembly for two consecutive years in 2012 and 2013. He died on 22 December 2015, during a session of the National Assembly.

On 5 June, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain announced they were severing relations with Qatar over "its continuous support for terrorism" and closed their airspace and seaports to Qatari transportation. The four Arab countries also withdrew their diplomatic missions from Qatar.