Qatar: Additions to Terror Blacklist Are Baseless

Qatar Has Already Prosecuted the Only Ones With Direct Ties

Jason Ditz 

Posted onJuly 26, 2017CategoriesNewsTagsQatar

Qatar has expressed disappointment today at yesterday’s move by the four blockading states to add 18 more groups and individuals to what is being described as an anti-Qatar terrorist blacklist, saying the additions have “no basis in fact.”

Qatar’s Communications Director says he believes the move is part of a “smear campaign against Qatar,” noting that the only ones on the new list who had any connection with Qatar in the first place have already been prosecuted by the Qatari government.

The blacklist entries heavily leaned toward groups in Yemen and Libya, mostly charities and media outlets with connections that Saudi Arabia or others in the quartet find objectionable.As with the first list, Qataris were a small minority on what is supposed to be a Qatar-centric list.

The four states have been blockading Qatar for weeks now, nominally for “terrorist” ties, but primarily because Qatar’s al-Jazeera media outlet has taken positions contrary to the Saudi government’s, and has allowed opposition political figures on their network.

http://news.antiwar.com/2017/07/26/qatar-additions-to-terror-blacklist-are-baseless/