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Gargash: Qatar’s Way out of the Crisis Is Allaying Neighbors’ Fears | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Minister of State for Foreign Affairs for the United Arab Emirates, Anwar Gargash, speaks at an event at Chatham House in London, Britain July 17, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall


Dubai- UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said the best way for Qatar to get out of the current crisis is to work hard on rolling back from behavior neighbors perceive as threatening and potentially able to harm their sovereign states.

Gargash said Qatar is a small but rich country, explaining that it is using its financial resources to support terrorism.

The UAE top diplomat clarified in a meeting with a number of media and journalism personalities that the Qatar crisis is not a dispute between five countries and the peninsula, the way media has referred to it so far, but extends to international security as well.

The Saudi-led bloc of four has carried out the boycott under the premise and good evidence of Doha’s funding of the extremist group the Muslim Brotherhood and other terror groups.

Answering a question about the bloc of four demanding that Qatar shuts Al-Jazeera, Gargash said that Al-Jazeera Arabic is an outlet for Muslim Brotherhood propaganda while it’s state-funded and therefore represents a clear threat to regional peace.

He described the peninsula as a state sponsor of terrorism, arguing that as a number of blacklisted terrorists dwell in  Qatar, Doha has become a safe haven to a large number of UN-banned individuals.

Gargash said that terrorism has become a global phenomenon and that no city can be said to be 100-percent safe from its brutal attacks whether it be in India, the United States, Europe or anywhere else.

He said that no amount, regardless of how little, of support be given to terrorism or extremism is acceptable, and therefore countries must work to remove any shaded areas from the overall plot and action plan against terrorism.

Gargash affirmed that the Gulf Cooperation Council has proved its place and great value to all, and that it would prefer that Doha chooses to reform its ways and continues to be part of the Gulf system after it has been brought to its senses.

During his visit to New Delhi, Gargash assured leaders and officials in India that the current developments in the region will have no repercussions on Indian communities in the Gulf states or economic interests of India in those countries.