The Gulf states trying to force Qatar to change political course have given their strongest hint yet that they plan to expel
Qatar from the Gulf Cooperation Council, the regional trade and security group.
In a speech on Monday, the
United Arab Emirates foreign minister, Anwar Gargash, will warn: “You cannot be part of a regional organisation dedicated to strengthening mutual security and furthering mutual interests, and at the same time undermine that security and harm those interests. You cannot be both our friend and the friend of al-Qaida”.
He will insist the six-week long boycott of Qatar is starting to work and reject the suggestion the four anti-Qatar allies – the UAE,
Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain – have miscalculated, by claiming that Doha is already making concessions.
Gargash will claim a direct result of the blockade’s pressure is Qatar’s private promises to western powers that it will review the list of 59 extremists the UAE claims are in Doha. The UAE also wants the individuals arrested or expelled, along with 12 named organisations.
Qatar’s decision last week to sign a memorandum of understanding on terrorist financing with the US has been hailed as “a positive development” by the foreign minister.
But the overall tone of the speech, to be delivered at
Chatham House in London, is uncompromising and contains claims Qatar funded the
Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), the jihadi group that trained
the Manchester suicide bomber.
Claiming the UAE has been warning of an extremist threat since the 1980s, he describes Qatar as a “very wealthy state, with $300bn (£230bn) in reserves, which is wedded to extremist jihadism and terrorism”.