Gargash accuses Qatar of ‘years of incitement’ against UAE

Dr Anwar Gargash’s, the UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, made the comments after the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic and travel links to Qatar.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE accuse Qatar of supporting Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood as well as supporting extremist ideology. Karim Jaafar / AFP

ABU DHABI // The crisis with Qatar is the result of “the accumulation of years of incitement from a brother against his brethren”, the UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs has tweeted.

Dr Anwar Gargash’s comments on Monday night came after the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic and travel links to Qatar over Doha’s support for Islamist and militant groups and its opposition to their Iran policies.

“A stressful and difficult day, the accumulation of years of incitement from a brother against his brethren, the brethren’s decision came after years of advice and patience, how we hoped for wisdom and reason instead of obstinacy,” Dr Gargash said on Twitter in a series of posts.

Dr Gargash opened the possibility of a de-escalation with Qatar, but did not give specific details of what kinds of demands are being made of Doha.

“Can the [our] brother amend his behaviour? Can he be one to respect pledges and charters, to be mindful of brotherly and neighbourly relations, a partner in prosperity and adversity? Simply put, this is the framework for a solution,” he tweeted.

The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and a number of allied governments took the unprecedented steps on Monday after tensions had escalated since US president Donald Trump’s visit to Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE accuse Qatar of supporting Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood as well as supporting extremist ideology, and also undermining their security through links with Iran.

“The UAE opted for honesty and transparency, we chose stability over chaos. We opted for moderation and development, for trust and clarity, and we chose Salman and Saudi Arabia,” Dr Gargash said in another Tweet.

A spat in 2014 over similar issues with Doha’s policies was eventually defused, but the UAE’s deep suspicion over Qatar never dissipated. Both the UAE and Saudi Arabia say that Qatar never honoured the commitments it made in a declaration signed in Riyadh at the time.

At the heart of the tension is the support Doha has given for decades to Islamist groups after the Arab Spring, and its foreign policy choices that other GCC states saw as undermining the stability of the status quo.

Qatar-based media have also long been used as a platform to criticise GCC neighbours, and has been a constant source of anger for Riyadh and others since the 1990s.

“The issue does not revolve around sovereignty or independent decision-making, but rather a rejection of policies that are aimed to harm siblings and undermine security and stability in the Arabian Gulf. We cannot all be wrong,” Dr Gargash said on Twitter.