Being afraid of accusations of laxity towards
counter-terrorism, Qatar adopted measures to fight financing of Islamist
groups, which are labeled terrorists by the international community. Following
a deal reached between Doha and Washington, Qatar has signed with France a
Letter of Intent during French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Doha on
November 17 2017. Per the letter, a group of Qatari individuals were forced to
stop financing the terrorists, particularly Al-Qaeda-affiliated group in Syria.
However, Dohas still has a lot to do.
For many years, a half-dozen Qatari group has
financed Al-Qaeda branches in Syria and Iraq and the Somali Al-Shabab militant
group. During the investigation, which conducted for book “Our Dearest Emirs,
Are they really our friends” by my colleague Christian Chesnot and I, actually
our friends”, we met with one of the terrorist financiers Sheikh Abdul Rahman
bin Omar al-Nuaimi in Doha in 2016. He was blacklisted by the European Union
and the United States in 2014.
In 2013, U.S. Treasury Department has labeled
al-Nuaimi as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) over providing
terrorist organizations with money and technological support. Despite that the
grey-bearded grandfather seems quite and peaceful, he is nothing but a second
conspirator.
In mid-2000, Sheikh Nuaimi was paying $2 million
monthly to Qaeda in Iraq, Daesh’s ancestors. Then he funded the Lebanese group
of Osbat al-Ansar ( means The League of Partisans in Egish) in Palestinian
refugee camp of Ein al-Hilwa, southern Lebanon. In 2014, The sheikh transferred
$600,000 to Khaled al-Souri, Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri’s envoy to Syria,
according to U.S. State Department data. In 2015, he provided Qaeda-linked
Al-Shabab militant group with $250,000.
Many charges
have been denied by the sheikh. “Bring evidence that we are financing
terrorists,” he told us. “The reason of the American accusations against me is
releasing a report on U.S. drones after
I gave it to U.N. experts on December 8, 2013, when I revealed that the U.S.
has illegally killed innocent people, particularly in Yemen, where about 950
persons were killed by the drone airstrikes.”
The Qatari authorities have recently tightened their
grip on the Sheikh. However, the situation was different two years ago,when we
met with him without any problems except for a kind of distrust shown towards
western journalists. “I have no any problems with Qatari authorities,” he told
us at that time. “My problem is with the Americans. They wanted to silence me. I
am not banned from traveling abroad except to Europe, U.S., and Saudi Arabia.”
Undoubtedly, Al-Karama Charity, which he presides,
is financed by the Qatari government. The Sheikh’s ties with the ruling family
of Qatar are old. Admittedly, Nuaimi was imprisoned in 1998, when he was an
employee at the Ministry of Education, over
signing a petition opposing women emancipation, which was also targeting
Sheikh Mouza, the second wife of former emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.
The petition also was signed by three members of the ruling family, reflecting
that the family has been penetrated by ultra-conservatives. In 2001, the sheikh
was released and was welcomed by former Emir Hamad, who appointed him as an
envoy to some jihadists like Abdel-Mageed al-Zentani, one of the close jihadist
to former leader of Al-Qaeda Osama bin Laden and who was wanted the U.S.
In short, Nuaimi was a persona-non grata. In 2004,
he founded Geneva-based “Karama” charity, which is a mere cover. In 2009,
Karama called for supporting the “Iraqi Resistance” against the foreign
occupation forces - the American troops- although U.S. has has a military base
in Qatar to protect the tiny emirate.
The paradox that reflects Qatar’s double-game approach. Qatar has let
the Sheikh to hold a series of meetings to attack and criticise the West. “The
Americans asked the Qatari authorities to stop raising funds of supporting the
rebels in Syria. It was not Qatar who decided it on its own,” he said in 2016.
If it was requested from the sheikh to blatantly
lie, he would swear that Qatar has never financed the Muslim Brotherhood or the
rebellion groups in Syria, Egypt and Libya during the Arab Spring. “We have
always supported peoples’ choices,” he said, adding “If he people supported the
Islamists, we will support the people even if there were objections; Al-Nusra
Front (the former branch of al-Qaeda in Syria) was accepted by the Syrian
people. And if the people chose al-Nusra, that was their choice. For me, there
is a difference between al-Nusra and Daesh. Daesh militants are occupying
forces, unlike al-Nusra which mostly comprises of Syrians fight against
dictator Bashar al-Assad. So there is nothing wrong to support and finance them
to achieve their goal.” The Sheikh openly showed his sympathy with groups
designated as terrorists by the international community.
That al-Qaeda financier got benefits from lenient
attitude by Qatar’s allies in Europe. In late 2011, Nuaimi visited Paris
without being worried by any tightened measures by the French authorities, which were very close
to Qatar at that time.
Nuaimi is not the only case; there are half a dozen
of terrorism financiers due to Qatari lenient policy. For example, Salim Hassan
Kuwari and Abdullah Ghanem Khawar are accused by the US Treasury Department of
providing hundreds of thousands of dollars to al-Qaeda to launch its operations
and to free al-Qaeda detainees in Iran and other places.
“Most of those Jihadist financiers are belong to big
families or to prominent tribes; the authorities find difficulty to deal with
them,” Qatari officials said to justify the lack of taking any actions against
those financiers. “If Qatar took an measure against anyone belongs to a tribe,
the whole tribe will stand against the state. Being a tiny country, Qatar could
face destabilizing the society by such resistance.” However, such argument is
totally rejected by the Western countries, which see that there is an action
should be taken against the financiers of radical Islam. The example of Saudi
Arabia proves so.
In 2009, The former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton affirmed in a diplomatic cable, leaked by Wikileaks, that dealing with
Qatar was “the worst in the region” of the Middle East.
Under U.S.
pressure since 2015, Doha has taken measures to curb terrorism financing via
freezing the financiers’ assets. It also barred two financiers - Saad al-Kaabi
and Abdel-Latif Al-Kawari- from leaving the Qatari territories. In 2015, Doha
also conducted a restructure for the Anti-terrorism Committee after the
issuance of several decrees to curb the activities of the charities. Despite
such measures, there are some individuals and entities “continued to serve as
financiers to terrorist groups,” according to a report issued recently by the
U.S. Secretary of State.
In the section of “ terrorism financing,” the
operation of paying ransoms to Qaeda-linked abductors of western hostage in
Syria should be added. Qatar has specialized in paying ransoms over the past
years as it has involved in dozens cases of taking hostages. The total amount
of money paid to Al-Nusra reached $150 million, a treasure for such
organizations to recruit new terrorists.
When Qatari officials were asked about the type of
financing, they replied “Do not blame us. Blame the European countries which
urge us to do so.” It is not a mistake.
Doha also hides behind humanitarian attitude; the religious
rapprochement between Qatar and these abductors overshadow the
"generosity" of Doha in such suspicious deals.
When we asked Emir of Qatar Tamim bn Hamad Al Tani
during a joint press conference with President Macron about how his country
hosts individuals, like Nuaimi, blacklisted by U.S. and European countries
such, Tamim said “this is false information circulated by the media.” President
Macron said nothing. On April 26, France will host an international conference
on the issue of terrorism financing. If the French authorities want to maintain
good relations with Qatar, they should practice strong pressure on Doha to end
this support for terrorism, should stop the double-standard speech and should
be convinced that Qatar's Western allies’ security is at stake.
