Dr. Khalid Mubarak Al Shafi, Editor-in-Chief of The Peninsula, speaking at the Qatar TV talk show ‘The Truth’.
Dr. Khalid Mubarak Al Shafi, Editor-in-Chief of The Peninsula, has said that siege countries are using cheap tactics and that cannot deprive Qatar from holding World Cup 2022, and it is for all Arab countries and not only for Qatar.
“The siege countries employed every tactic against Qatar even cheap methods like songs and singers. “This reflects negativity of the siege countries.” Dr. Al-Shafi added while talking recently on a Qatar TV talk show “The Truth”.
Regarding the latest developments related to ongoing Gulf crisis and the recent visit of Iraqi foreign minister Dr Ibrahim Al Jaafari to Qatar, Dr. Al-Shafi said that the visit reflected Iraqi position which is against the blockade against any Arab country and the need to solve the disputes through dialogue.
“Iraq didn’t stand with any country against another country and from the beginning has been saying that the solution of the crisis lies in the dialogue. Qatar Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani during the joint press conference blamed the siege countries for the dissolution of the GCC as a collective security system,” Dr. Al-Shafi pointed out.
Replying to a question about statements from some siege countries which described Gulf crisis as a small crisis, he said that if it was correct then why it stopped the GCC summit? “And why the siege countries have made it an international issue by saying that Qatar supports terrorism? If it is a small crisis then let them solve it through GCC framework.”
“Since the beginning of the crisis, we noticed that Qatar was made a cover by siege countries to execute their internal political changes,” he noted.
He said that siege countries were spreading hatred against Qatar and misguiding ILO blaming that Qatar was abusing expat workers and all this was done to get Qatar banned from hosting World Cup 2022. “Now the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has given its verdict clearing Qatar from such baseless allegations and has closed its 2014 complaint against Qatar,” he said.
“They should know that the World Cup 2022 is for all Arab countries and not only for Qatar as Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said that hosting World Cup is a pride to us and all Arab countries,” Dr. Al-Shafi added.
On Bahrain’s foreign policy against Qatar, he said that there are countries which dictate Bahrain and formulate its foreign policy. “Recently, Bahrain imposed visa system on Qataris and from time to time it kept on raising old disputes with Qatar and all these disputes are old and already solved since long time like border disputes, so how can they raises it after 16 years.”
Dr. Al-Shafi said that siege countries must know that Qatar, after June 5, is not like Qatar before and will continue making achievements in all sectors and the blockade will not affect it.
