Siege of Qatar will remain an everlasting disgrace, says Qatar's Ambassador to Turkey
Qatar’s Ambassador to Turkey Salem bin Mubarak Al Shafi said that the siege measures against Qatar, adopted by neighbouring countries, will remain an ever-lasting disgrace.
In an interview with Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah, the ambassador said that GCC neighbours were repeating baseless allegations about Qatar’s connection with financing or supporting terrorism.
When asked about some people referring to it as a boycott and not a siege, he had this to say.
“Qatar has land borders only with Saudi Arabia. So when Riyadh closes this border, it means our land connection and communication with the outside world is cut off. This is definitely a siege. Saudi newspapers describes the measures against Qatar as a siege, as do Western countries. So it’s not a boycott, but a full-blown siege,” he said.
He considered the actions taken by these countries to be illegal, immoral and far from human, Arab and Islamic values, pointing that thousands of families have been affected by these decisions.
He added that Qatar has documented these violations and that they are being followed by human rights institutions including the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other international institutions.
“We’ve also commissioned specialised legal offices in Switzerland to claim compensation for the material and moral damages suffered by all those affected by their actions,” he added.
The ambassador said that the use of Muslims' holy places in a political conflict was unacceptable and not lawful, pointing that Qatar has documented cases of expulsion of Qatari worshippers from Umrah, as well as cases of forcing Qatari residents in their hotels or students attending their schools to leave immediately.
He said that those inhumane actions were not only on humans but also on animals, referring to expulsion of camels and cattle owned by Qatari citizens.
He stressed that all the influential countries in the international community, such as the USA, Germany, France, Russia, Japan or the Islamic world, reject the actions of the siege countries, therefore, officials in those countries are trying to deny these things to the media.
He added people know perfectly well that they have no credibility, especially after their failure to provide evidence of the false accusations against Qatar and their refusal of negotiations.
The siege countries failed to provide any evidence of these allegations, prompting US officials to express their frustration and disrespect with the whole matter, he said adding that the US State Department has publicly questioned the real cause of the crisis.
Just waiting for the moment when it's resolved.
"They" imposed a land, sea and air blockade first....then the lists of demands follows.......
is this what prophet (sal) taught us to do, is this what he taught about brotherhood,?? west-world is trying to defeat Muslims and Islamism completely as they did before in last centuries, we may not allow such acts, it might be the sign of end of the world.
Allah knows the best
Our heart is bigger, we are more kind & open. That is our merit. We are not angry. We wish the early resolve.
I personally commend Qatar's approach in all of this. Initially sort out the wellbeing of the people (fruit / veg / milk etc) which they did.
The actions taken by the other members potentially could have allowed us to starve here. Let's not forget that. I know the State of Qatar will not forget the actions taken by their fellow GCC members, nor the swift response actioned by Iran and Turkey.