UAE pressured Qatar to turn over Emirati dissident's wife in return for de-escalation: Qatar FM

UAE pressured Qatar to turn over Emirati dissident's wife in return for de-escalation: Qatar FM
The UAE asked Qatar to turn over the wife of an Emirati dissident in return for de-escalating its campaign against Doha before the Gulf crisis, Qatar's foreign minister has said.
2 min read
11 January, 2018
UAE asked Qatar to turn over wife of Emirati dissident in return for de-escalation [Anadolu]
The UAE asked Qatar to turn over the wife of an Emirati dissident in return for de-escalating its campaign against Doha two months before the current Gulf crisis, Qatar's foreign minister has said.

"There were differenced with the UAE two months before the Gulf crisis regarding campaigns in the media against Qatar," Sheikh Mohammed bin Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani told Qatar TV in an interview Wednesday.

In return for ending that campaign, Abu Dhabi demanded Qatar turn over the wife of an Emirati dissident who lives in Doha, the minister added, without naming them.

Before the current crisis, the FM said relations with both Saudi Arabia and Bahrain had been on good terms, until the hacking of the Qatar News Agency and the planting of fake remarks by the emir of Qatar, a act blamed widely on the UAE, triggered the current crisis. 

"Either Saudi Arabia was dishonest in dealing with us before the crisis, or it has bought into the claims resulting from the hacking," the minister added, in reference to the sudden change in Saudi attitude on Qatar.

Al-Thani said he had attempted to reach out to Saudi Arabia's crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and the foreign ministers of the blockading countries to clarify the hacking of QNA, recalling that Qatar had worked closely with both Riyadh and Abu Dhabi in Syria and Yemen yet found itself being accused by both of "supporting terror and betrayal" without a shred of evidence.

"It is the right of the Qatari people to learn the facts behind the measures against them...what happened was a fierce campaign prepared in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE against Qatar put in motion immediately after the QNA hack," he said. 

On June 5, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic and economic ties with gas-rich Qatar, accusing it of links to extremist groups.

Saudi Arabia then issued Qatar with a list of demands, including shutting down media outlets Al Jazeera and London-based The New Arab, curbing relations with Iran and closing a Turkish military base in the emirate.

Qatar has denied the allegations and repeatedly called for dialogue to end the crisis.