Qatar accuses the UAE of ‘violence and hatred’ at world court in The Hague
- Qatar has faced an economic and diplomatic boycott since June 2017 by Gulf rivals who accused Doha of backing terrorism
Qatar accused the United Arab Emirates Wednesday of a “campaign of violence and hatred” against its citizens, urging the International Court of Justice to quash a case brought by Abu Dhabi.
The Gulf states are locked in a battle at the UN’s top court, where the UAE on Tuesday asked judges to stop Qatar “severely aggravating” a two-year-old crisis between Doha and other countries in the oil-rich region.
Qatar’s lawyers however hit back, saying in fact it was Abu Dhabi who continued with “discriminatory policies that severely impacted Qatari citizens”.
“It is the Qatari people who are the true victims in the racial discrimination case, not the government of the UAE,” Qatar’s representative Mohammed Abdulaziz Al-Khulaifi said.
This included Abu Dhabi’s move to gag the Doha-based and state-funded Al Jazeera global news network, which was accused of spreading “propaganda”, the lawyer told The Hague-based tribunal.
“The silencing of … media voices is part-and-parcel of the UAE’s campaign to incite violence and hatred against Qataris,” Khulaifi said.
