Qatar blasted for hosting Taliban embassy

CAIRO – 15 June 2017: Qatar has been blasted over hosting a Taliban embassy, which several experts have used as proof that the government has been providing political and financial cover to militias and terrorist groups for long time.

“Qatar is using groups such as the Taliban, Islamic State and Houthis for its own protection when they feel any near threat; in exchange they refuse to extradite them to the International Police Organization (INTERPOL),” Islamic researcher Islam Al-Nagar said in statements Wednesday.

He added that the political movements taken by Arab and Gulf states regarding cutting diplomatic ties with Qatar are the beginning of “right procedures which should have been taken a long time ago with the cooperation of the international society to confront terrorism.”

Nagar, also the deputy of the National Defense and Security Parliamentary Committee, said that hosting Taliban members inside Qatar did not start with the establishment of an embassy in 2013, but since the beginning of the Afghanistan war 2001.

In 2013, the Qatari foreign ministry announced hosting an official political office for the Taliban in Doha, and said in statements that opening it comes to enhance the efforts of world peace, and to assure that disputes should be solved through dialogues.

According to Al-Masry Al-Youm, shortly after the announcement the United States said it would hold official negotiations with the Taliban through this political office in Doha.

On Tuesday, media outlets quoted Mutlaq al-Qahtani, a senior counterterrorism adviser to Qatar’s foreign minister, as saying that hosting the Taliban embassy came per the U.S.’ request. “It’s part of Qatar’s open-door policy, to facilitate talks, to mediate and to bring peace,” he explained.

Qatar’s relations with several Arab and other Gulf States have been strained since May 24, when the Qatari state-run news agency reported Sheikh Tamim Al Thani’s statements regarding Gulf foreign policy with Iran, describing it as “unwise.” He also added that the American military base inside his country is “the only protection guarantee” to Doha against “foreign ambitions.”

On Monday, June 5, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Libya and Yemen decided to cut all diplomatic ties with Qatar for its “continuous support for terrorism,” closing their airspace and seaports to Qatari transportation.

Later in statements, Egypt and the Gulf states gave the Qatari diplomatic missions in their countries 48 hours to leave.

On Tuesday, June 6, Kuwaiti Emir Sabah Al-Ahmad started a tour which included Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar in the hopes of mediating between the three. No official details were published about the results of the meetings; however, according to Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa’s statements to Saudi newspaper Makkah on June 8, “Kuwait’s attempts for reconciliation have failed.”