Congress testimony exposes Qatar's role in funding terrorism
By
Dalia El Hamshary
David
Weinberg, an American expert on terrorism, exposed Thursday in his testimony
to the Congress' Foreign Affairs Committee Qatar's role in funding terrorism.
Meanwhile,
The Washington Post has published hacked messages, exposing that Qatar paid hundreds
of millions of US dollars in 2015 to terrorists in Iraq on the pretext to free
a number of its citizens and members of the royal family.
In
his testimony, Weinberg has given the Congress' subcommittee on terror and
nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, details of
efforts exerted by the Arab Gulf states in collaboration with Washington in
this regard.
However,
he doubted if Qatar was serious about these efforts, despite some signs of
improvement on the back of pressures since its neighbors cut off ties with it
for its supporting and the financing of terrorism. He highlighted memos and agreements
signed between the US and Arab Gulf states in this regard, including the Jeddah
Declaration in 2014.
He
said terrorists in Yemen and Syria obtained millions of US dollar from Qatar in
ransom money, recommending an end of any sort of ransom payments, which are an
indirect funding resource.
The
Washington Post has confirmed that Qatar paid money to terrorists according to
the hacked messages among some Qatari officials.
The
newspaper said that the secret records of messages reveal that the payment plan
allocated $150 million in cash for individuals and groups acting as
intermediaries, regarded by US officials as terrorists.
