‘Media of siege nations spreading lies’

Dr. Khalid Mubarak Al-Shafi, Editor-in-Chief of The Peninsula stressed that American newspapers have also confirmed that Qatar’s statement about the call between Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and HRH Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia was true and based on coordination of the US president.
Talking on a Qatar TV talk show “The Truth” last night, he also said that the US president called Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE leaders and the Saudi justification to suspend dialogue is on the grounds that they do not like to show that they have given up Saudi sovereignty, or receiving the orders from US.
“The Emir took the initiative and called Saudi Crown Prince because he wants to keep the unity of GCC intact especially under current situation.”
“People have welcomed the call and thought it will be a beginning of solving the crisis but after few minutes the Saudi Foreign Ministry suspended the dialogue alleging that Qatar was creating lies,” he added.
“I am sure that in the coming few days the American newspapers will give more details about the call and will disclose lies created by the media of the siege countries. Even the Kuwaiti Emir said that these countries were preparing for a military intervention”, Al Shafi said.
“The problem of these countries is that they have planned decisions like when to cut diplomatic ties with Qatar under the pretext of QNA hacking, and now Saudi Arabia has suspended the dialogue just after one call and we don’t know whether they are receiving decisions from other countries or what,” he added.
Giving another example of lies by the siege countries, he said that recently newspapers from Saudi Arabia reported said that ISIS was supporting Qatar and issued a statement in Qatar’s support which is totally baseless and the US media has debunked their claim.
“We want to say that these countries have used everything to malign Qatar though such allegations like linking terrorism with Qatar have proven baseless. We know 9/11 anniversary is being observed today and there are also reports indicating that Saudi had provided funds to train some attackers and most of them were Saudis.”
He said that Qatar had welcomed all the GCC students in its universities and all the GCC citizens and these were the directions from
H H the Emir while on the other hand the siege countries had expelled Qatari students and families from their countries.
For his part, Jaber Al Harami, former editor-in-chief of Al Sharq said that the siege countries were continuously lying, otherwise the call between the Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and HRH Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia was coordinated by US president.
“Saudi Arabia wants to say that America has no relation to this call because in this case it considers it as interference into its sovereignty. These countries have nothing to say to their people because when they started the crisis it was with Trump’s approval and now he (Trump) has asked them to sit on negotiations table.”
“The White House itself didn’t say that what Qatar has said regarding the phone call is not true while Saudi Arabia is confused. Some people are also asking who is taking decisions in GCC? Is it Saudi Arabia which is supposed to do that or any other country?”
Al Harami noted that Qatar has provided a lot of support to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE during the last 20 years.
“Qatar lost soldiers while fighting on the Saudi-Yemeni border. It also led a mediation between the UAE and Saudi Arabia until they made reconciliation at their borders and they must remember all these things.”