Meshal bin Hamad Al-Thani is Qatar’s ambassador to the United States.
Today is Day 18 of the diplomatic, economic and social blockade of Qatar by several of its Arab neighbors, and so far, no conditions for the lifting of the blockade have been presented to us. On Tuesday, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said: “The more time goes by, the more doubt is raised about the actions taken by Saudi Arabia and the UAE [United Arab Emirates]. At this point we are left with one simple question: Were the actions really about their concerns regarding Qatar’s alleged support for terrorism, or were they about the long-simmering grievances between and among the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] countries?”
Our government has maintained, from Day 1, that the blockade has nothing to do with the accusations that have been leveled against Qatar. The allegations that Qatar supports terrorism and that Qatar is a secret ally of Iran are, as the State Department suspects, just a smokescreen for an attempt to infringe upon Qatar’s sovereignty and punish Qatar for its independence.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE have portrayed their anti-Qatar campaign as an attempt to force Qatar to abandon its “support for terrorists,” though they know that we do not, have not and never will support terrorism. They know terrorism poses just as much of a threat to Qatar as it does to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and every other nation.
The second big lie in this smear campaign is that Qatar is a secret ally of Iran. The Saudis, the UAE and every government in the Gulf maintain diplomatic and trade relations with Iran. In fact, Iran’s biggest trading partner is the nation now leading the anti-Qatar blockade: the UAE. But more important, Qatar has been providing vital support to the opposition in Syria — which is battling against government forces allied with Iran.
Behind the smokescreen, we believe that the blockading nations are seeking to isolate and punish Qatar for our independence and to retaliate against us for supporting the true aspirations of people against tyrants and dictators.
There must always be a doorway to end discord, and Qatar has always believed that dialogue, negotiation and compromise are solutions to violence and conflict. We have fostered those discussions through an “open-door” foreign policy throughout our history.
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