Closing Al Jazeera not against free speech: UAE amb.

CAIRO – 3 July 2017: UAE Ambassador to London Sulaiman Almazroui defended the UAE’s demand that Qatar close Al-Jazeera, accusing the network’s Arabic channel of a long history of inciting hatred.

“The demand to shut down Al Jazeera is not a bid to close down free speech, as John Simpson suggests [“Western silence over the threat to Al Jazeera is just shameful”, Comment, June 29],” said Almazroui in an article he wrote for the local daily newspaper London Evening Standard.

He said that non-Arabic speakers “need to know that Al-Jazeera Arabic is different from Al-Jazeera English.”

Almazroui added that “Al-Jazeera Arabic has a history of inciting hatred and promoting terrorism, and has pushed dangerous ideologies across the Arabic-speaking world.”
The article continued blaming the network for giving space to controversial presenters and being a mouthpiece for militant groups.

“Clerics have used the channel to call for the murder of European ambassadors and artists. Yousef al Qaradawi, spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, used his Al Jazeera show to call for a second Holocaust of the Jewish people. The network has been a mouthpiece for al-Qaeda, the Nusra Front, Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, all of which are designated terrorist organizations in the UK. The mother of one of the London Bridge attackers told The Times that her son was radicalized watching Al Jazeera — so the effects of this are clear.”



London Evening Standard newspaper



Qatar’s relations with several Arab and Gulf States have been strained since May 24, when the Qatari state-run news agency reported Sheikh Tamim bin Hammad Al-Thani’s statements regarding Gulf foreign policy with Iran, as “unwise.”

On June 5, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Libya and Yemen decided to cut all diplomatic ties with Qatar, hurling allegations the state supports terrorism. Ports and airspace were cut off to Qatari vessels.

The countries listed 13 demands to be met by Qatar, including: severing ties with terrorist groups, closing down the pan-Arab Al Jazeera satellite channel, downgrading ties with arch-rival Iran and closing a Turkish air base in Qatar.

Qatar was given a deadline that ended on Sunday to meet the demands. Kuwait request to extend the deadline by 48 hours and the four Arab states agreed.