On Tuesday, Qatar's foreign minister flung a challenge at the four Arab states that have been striving for three months to resolve the regional crisis precipitated by Doha. "Put up your claims and put up your evidence", said Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the UAE. This was a performance staged not in the interests of resolving the problem but to project Qatar as an innocent victim of its neighbours.
As he knows all too well, the quartet supplied incriminating evidence against Qatar more than three months ago. Had Qatar complied with the quartet's demands to end its policies of sponsoring terrorism and destabilising the region, there would be no crisis today. But rather than introspect and change course, Qatar elected to blame its neighbours.
In spite of being at the receiving end of Doha's actions, the quartet chose to honour the bonds of kinship that date back centuries by keeping the dispute within the GCC. Qatar, it is sad to see, never felt obliged to uphold these ties. On Wednesday, we learned that Qatar was complicit in attempts to overthrow the government of Bahrain in 2011. Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem, Qatar's prime minister at the time, engaged in clandestine telephonic talks with the leader of Bahrain's largest opposition group and encouraged him flood the streets with protesters and escalate unrest in the country. Qatar then deployed its broadcasting arm, Al Jazeera, to magnify the protests.
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Read: Qatar crisis: What you need to know
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“Interference” doesn’t fully convey the enormity of Doha’s actions, which were orchestrated to sow discord, promote instability and, ultimately, bring down the government of a fellow Arab Gulf country. Bahrain has reacted to the revelations with sorrow rather than anger at Qatar. Its mood is increasingly shared by people across the region. They can see that Doha, in thrall to Iran, has been trampling on its own.
Recent reports that a hefty donation given by Qatar to an Indian charity made its way to groups with terrorist links are further evidence of the global footprint of the policies that the Arab quartet wants Doha to curb. As Dr Anwar Gargash, the UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, told reporters after his visit to India last week, “Qatar is a small, but wealthy, state using its financial means to support terrorism”.
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Read more on the Qatar crisis:
The profound ideological clash at the heart of the rift between the Gulf and Qatar
How France ransomed itself to Qatar's money and 'soft power'
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Qataris are suffering the consequences of their government's actions. On Wednesday The National detailed the economic cost of Doha's refusal to change course. Construction works, unable to import materials, have halted; aircraft, unable to fly to neighbouring countries, are collecting dust; growth in the non-oil sector is slowing. Having quietly reduced the stake of its sovereign wealth fund in Credit Suisse, Qatar is holding talks to raise money by floating a bond and is poised to post a fiscal deficit. It is within Qatar's power to end this nightmare.
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Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Gran Gala del Calcio 2019 winners
Best Player: Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus)
Best Coach: Gian Piero Gasperini (Atalanta)
Best Referee: Gianluca Rocchi
Best Goal: Fabio Quagliarella (Sampdoria vs Napoli)
Best Team: Atalanta
Best XI: Samir Handanovic (Inter); Aleksandar Kolarov (Roma), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Kalidou Koulibaly (Napoli), Joao Cancelo (Juventus*); Miralem Pjanic (Juventus), Josip Ilicic (Atalanta), Nicolo Barella (Cagliari*); Fabio Quagliarella (Sampdoria), Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus), Duvan Zapata (Atalanta)
Serie B Best Young Player: Sandro Tonali (Brescia)
Best Women’s Goal: Thaisa (Milan vs Juventus)
Best Women’s Player: Manuela Giugliano (Milan)
Best Women’s XI: Laura Giuliani (Milan); Alia Guagni (Fiorentina), Sara Gama (Juventus), Cecilia Salvai (Juventus), Elisa Bartoli (Roma); Aurora Galli (Juventus), Manuela Giugliano (Roma), Valentina Cernoia (Juventus); Valentina Giacinti (Milan), Ilaria Mauro (Fiorentina), Barbara Bonansea (Juventus)
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
Key recommendations
- Fewer criminals put behind bars and more to serve sentences in the community, with short sentences scrapped and many inmates released earlier.
- Greater use of curfews and exclusion zones to deliver tougher supervision than ever on criminals.
- Explore wider powers for judges to punish offenders by blocking them from attending football matches, banning them from driving or travelling abroad through an expansion of ‘ancillary orders’.
- More Intensive Supervision Courts to tackle the root causes of crime such as alcohol and drug abuse – forcing repeat offenders to take part in tough treatment programmes or face prison.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
More on Quran memorisation:
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
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FIXTURES (all times UAE)
Sunday
Brescia v Lazio (3.30pm)
SPAL v Verona (6pm)
Genoa v Sassuolo (9pm)
AS Roma v Torino (11.45pm)
Monday
Bologna v Fiorentina (3.30pm)
AC Milan v Sampdoria (6pm)
Juventus v Cagliari (6pm)
Atalanta v Parma (6pm)
Lecce v Udinese (9pm)
Napoli v Inter Milan (11.45pm)