Qatar: Publication of ‘top secret’ document undermines reconciliation process

Qatar has accused members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) of violating the organisation’s bylaws in an attempt to undermine the efforts of US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, to resolve the current crisis by leaking selective excerpts of the Riyadh agreement on the eve of the A,merican official’s visit.

Earlier today, CNN today published a “top secret” hand-written document as evidence of Qatar’s failure to meet its commitments under the Riyadh agreement. It alleged that the documents signed during 2013 and 2014 by members of the GCC included a commitment not to interference in each other’s internal affairs and to cease financial or political support to anti-government activist groups.

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Doha believes that the revelation of details of the Riyadh agreement was timed to undermine the process of reconciliation pursued by Tillerson. Stating that the Saudi-led blockade was itself a violation of the Riyadh agreement, Sheikh Saif Al Thani, director of the Government Communications Office, said:

Their actions demonstrate that the blockading nations are not interested in engaging in honest negotiations to resolve our differences.

Pointing to details of the Riyadh agreement and its bylaws, Al Thani claims that existing mechanisms had existed to resolve the crises before the decision had been taken to impose a blockade on Qatar.  GCC member states could have requested an urgent meeting with other members, either on a bilateral basis or under the auspices of the GCC Council, he said.

However, “no such complaints were made or meetings requested before Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain initiated their unprovoked and unjustified blockade against Qatar on 5 June,” revealed Al Thani.

Instead, these nations organised a smear campaign in the international media to damage Qatar’s reputation, and then publicised fabricated quotes by His Highness the Emir of Qatar and Qatar’s Foreign Minister designed to inflame public opinion against our country.

In comments obtained by MEMO, Al Thani accuses the countries spearheading the blockade of “duplicity and subterfuge” because of their decision not to pursue their complaints through established GCC mechanisms. He alleges that “their intention was not to raise concerns relating to the Riyadh agreement but to destabilise Qatar’s government and undermine Qatar’s sovereignty.”

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Al Thani believes that the blockade is also in breach of the UN charter: “The hostile actions taken by the blockading nations contradict the purposes and principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations… which, among other things, stipulates that blockades are the exclusive mandate of the UN Security Council.”

He further accuses the actions of the blockading nations of “violating the principles of the sovereign equality of states, nonintervention and non-interference in the internal affairs of other nations, and freedom of international trade and navigation, all of which are enshrined in international law.”

Al Thani expressed Qatar’s desire to remain open to negotiations to resolve the current crisis and its wishes to continue working with Tillerson, the Emir of Kuwait and all parties to reach a just and fair resolution to the current dispute.