Did the UAE create the Qatar crisis based on false facts?

At a time when the four countries boycotting Qatar announced they were abandoning the list of 13 demands in return for Qatar implementing its list of “six principles”, US intelligence officials uncovered new details regarding the UAE’s breach of the Qatar news agency in order to fabricate the crisis with Qatar.

NBC news quoted an American intelligence expert saying that individuals working for the UAE hacked the Qatar News Agency’s website and social media accounts on 24 May in order to plant fabricated statement by Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani.

Washington Post newspaper had quoted unnamed American intelligence sources on 16 July saying:

The United Arab Emirates orchestrated the hacking of a Qatari government news site in May, planting a false story that was used as a pretext for the current crisis between Qatar and several Arab countries.

However, several Emirati officials, most recently the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Anwar Gargash, denied the accusations directed against Abu Dhabi, describing them as “false”.

Read: Qatar to prosecute UAE officials over news agency hacking

Qatar maintains “the information published in the Washington Post on 16 July 2017, which revealed the involvement of the United Arab Emirates … and senior Emirati officials in the hacking of Qatar News Agency, unequivocally proves that this hacking crime took place.”