UAE leaks: ‘Qatar and FIFA are poster children for corruption’

New leaks from a hacked e-mail account belonging to Yousef Al-Otaiba, the United Arab Emirates ambassador to Washington, have revealed that he accused the State of Qatar and the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) of corruption, without highlighting or substantiating these accusations.

The Huffington Post website published a new set of leaked e-mails from Al-Otaiba’s account showing his attempts to intervene and influence the US position.

The website confirmed that it received a series of e-mails yesterday from a source that confirmed that it aims to reveal the involvement of a number of foreign actors in supporting certain lobbies with the aim of influencing US foreign policy.

It added that it has verified the authenticity of six e-mails that showed an exchange of e-mails between the UAE ambassador, officials from the Obama administration, figures from the Atlantic Council – which is funded by the UAE and is known for its extreme right-wing tendencies and loyalty to Israel – as well as Elliott Abrams, an official in George W. Bush’s administration known for his support for Israel.

Read: Hackers leak emails from UAE ambassador to US

Abrams refused to comment on the content of the leaks but said in an e-mail to the Huffington Post that he had been a friend of Al-Otaiba for years and that they have exchanged e-mails. He also said that Qatar’s foreign policy was the subject of many of these e-mails. He added that although 15 years had passed, this policy has not changed significantly.

The website revealed that the e-mails provide new evidence of the ambassador’s attempts to distort the image of Qatar. In one e-mail, he says that Qatar is undermining the Egyptian government’s work and supports the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. He also said that “Qatar and FIFA combined are the poster children for corruption”, in a comment on Qatar’s hosting of the 2022 World Cup.

It should be noted that the leak of Al Otaiba’s e-mails, which were revealed in the past few days, also revealed his efforts to move the US military base from Qatar in light of the recent Hamas conference held in Doha, as well as coordination between the UAE and the US to prevent the conference from being held.

The leaks also revealed a request by the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, to former US Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, to strike Qatar as hard as he could.