Saudi Gazette report JEDDAH — A new report by a think-tank, The Henry Jackson Society (HJS), indicts Qatar for its nefarious activities in supporting terror and cited that many of the accusations leveled by the Quartet against Qatar are true, while stating that number of state-linked Qatari individuals have been implicated in terror-related acts. Kyle Orton, a Research Fellow in the Centre for Response to Radicalization and Terrorism at The Henry Jackson Society, has authored the 55-page report titled “HJS-Qatar and the Gulf crisis” in which he substantiates the commission and omission of Qatari individuals and bodies in inciting or propagating terror. Since June of 2017, Qatar has been subject to an international boycott by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt – the Quartet. Saudi Arabia has closed Qatar’s only land-border, and Doha was prevented from access to the sea in the territorial waters of the four states. Furthermore, the Quartet banned Qatar from using their airspace and imposed restrictions on Qatari residents. The report lays bare Qatar’s intention of furthering its soft-power and political influence in the region by positioning itself as a mediator that has long since crossed over into support for groups like Hamas and other Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated or inspired extremists. The report cited as evidence the moving of Hamas’ offices to Doha after its political troubles forced it out of Damascus, the Taliban too having its diplomatic presence in Qatar, and many Muslim Brotherhood members and supporters fleeing to Qatar in 2013. This policy, according to the report, put Qatar at odds with its neighbors, and Qatar’s habit of hosting wanted individuals from the other Gulf states and providing them citizenship and air time in its region-wide media aggravated its neighbors’ fury, while making them view Qatar’s behavior as subversive. The report squarely takes aim at Qatar’s media and Al Jazeera’s role. The report said that this double game of tolerance and terror-promotion has left the West somewhat befuddled in trying to deal with Al-Jazeera, often falling back a posture that looks solely through the lens of press freedom. This is a mistake because Al-Jazeera, particularly the Arabic channel, cannot be thought of simply as a media outlet: it is firmly oriented to comply with Qatari state interests. On terror-financing, the report implicated a number of state-linked Qatari individuals in financing the rise of Al-Qaeda in Syria, partly openly through support for Ahrar Al-Sham which operated in a military alliance with Jabhat Al-Nusra, and partly more ambiguously through purportedly private individuals who funded Al-Nusra directly. The report also indicated that Qatar has, in direct opposition to the policies of the Quartet, given support to forces in Libya, though Qatar formally supports the international political settlement that the Emirati and Egyptian proxies are challenging by force on the ground. The report also highlighted the fact that Qatar has been central to a range of hostage releases, particularly with Al-Nusra, providing or facilitating the payment of ransoms on a scale that is operationally important for these terrorist groups. Cast in the best light, this is a dangerous and destabilizing policy born of emotion, and Qatar’s neighbors view it as a more sinister policy designed to fund terror by stealth. The report too cited the accusations that Qatar has ties to the Houthis in Yemen. Sometimes these accusations are said to be financial and logistical, and some go as far as to say that without Qatari assistance, in collusion with Iran, the Houthis would have been defeated already and the internationally-recognized government of Yemen restored. The report also took issue on Qatar’s human rights. Given that Qatar presents its support for many of these extremists, at home and abroad, as a defense of human rights for people persecuted by authoritarian regimes, Qatar might be expected to have an impressive domestic human rights record. This is not the case. Probably the signal human rights failure of the Qatari government has been the conditions under which guest workers have labored in preparation for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The report rounded off by asking Britain to avoid publicly taking sides in the broader dispute between the Gulf States, and should work for reconciliation to provide for regional stability, particularly in the face of the aggression from revolutionary Iran.