Israeli journalists flown into Doha to meet with Qatari officials

Israeli journalists flown into Doha to meet with Qatari officials

June 13, 2017
On Sunday, Yedioth Ahronoth correspondent Orly Azoulay Katz wrote a report from the Qatari capital, saying that she was given a tour of Doha and its facilities and spoke with Qataris and expatriates about the circumstances after several Gulf and Muslim countries severed ties with Doha. — File photo
On Sunday, Yedioth Ahronoth correspondent Orly Azoulay Katz wrote a report from the Qatari capital, saying that she was given a tour of Doha and its facilities and spoke with Qataris and expatriates about the circumstances after several Gulf and Muslim countries severed ties with Doha. — File photo

Doha — A few days ago, Israeli journalist Enrique Zimmermann returned from Doha, stating that it was his eighth visit to the Qatari capital, where he prepared a report on the situation there and wrote an article on the Yedioth Ahronoth website, revealing that a senior Qatari official had hosted him at his home in Doha.

The Qatari official assured the Israeli journalist that Qatar and Israel share a common factor of being small countries surrounded by enemies and threats. Qatar, like Israel, has “turned the desert into beautiful garden”.

The Israeli journalist said he asked the same official about Qatar’s relationship with the Muslims Brotherhood, Hamas and Al-Nusra and the generous donations from the Qatari government to Daesh. He denied that relationship, and made it clear about Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and said: “We keep them in Doha to be under surveillance, they cannot leave their homes without our knowledge and this is better than wandering around the area”.

Zimmermann was not the only Israeli to visit Doha. On Sunday, Yedioth Ahronoth correspondent Orly Azoulay Katz wrote a report from the Qatari capital, saying that she was given a tour of Doha and its facilities and spoke with Qataris and expatriates about the circumstances after several Gulf and Muslim countries severed ties with Doha.

The owner of a restaurant in Souq Waqif told her that there was no shortage of food in Qatar because they had a reserve and has stores full of food, “but the correspondent noticed that the initial signs of the crisis are represented in the banks”.

She said, “It is not possible to exchange Qatari money to other currencies like Dollars and Euros,” and added that the Saudi boycotting is the main discussion on the Qatari street.

The Israeli correspondent, who described the constructional revival in Qatar, visited the World Cup locations that Qatar is currently building but did not find any worker in the construction and building sites because the required construction materials did not enter due to the current economic sanctions which could threaten Qatar’s hosting of the World Cup in 2022.

The representative of Yedioth mentioned in her report that Iran was the first to send food ships followed by India and Sri Lanka. — Al Arabiya English


June 13, 2017
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