$1-B ransom for royal kidnap behind Qatar crisis?

MANILA, Philippines -  Did Qatar’s payment of up to $1 billion in ransom to al-Qaeda to free some members of its royal family two years ago trigger the decision of seven countries to cut off relations with the beleaguered nation last Monday?

Qatar “paid Iranian and al-Qaeda-linked forces” the hefty amount allegedly to free 26 falcon hunters, 11 of whom were members of the ruling Al Thani family kidnapped by jihadis while hunting in Muthanna province in southern Iraq on Dec. 16, 2015, according to a Daily Mail report posted on the publication’s website on June 6.

A person involved in the ransom negotiations said in April that Qatar paid tens of millions of dollars to Shiite militias, who are active in the area of the kidnapping and work closely with the neighboring Shiite power Iran, and to the al-Qaeda-linked Levant Liberation Committee and Ahrar al-Sham, which are involved in the population transfers underway in war-torn Syria. 

Officials have considered the ransom payments the “tipping point” for the severance of Qatari-Gulf Arab ties, with one Gulf observer even telling the Financial Times it was “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

On June 5, six Arab nations – Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt, Yemen and Libya’s eastern-based government – and Maldives cut ties with Qatar. Mauritius and Mauritania have since followed suit, while Jordan “downgraded representation” in the country.

The deal to release the kidnapped royals in April again heightened concerns that Qatar supports terrorist groups.

Qatar, however, has since denied the accusation despite aggressive efforts to back Sunni rebel groups fighting to oust the Syrian government, which is backed by Iran and Russia.

In a statement, Qatar said that its neighbors’ decision was “founded on allegations that have no basis in fact.”

Meanwhile, Russian officials yesterday denied allegations that Russian hackers breached Qatar’s state news agency and planted a fake news story that led to the split.

The Russian president’s special envoy for cybersecurity told the Interfax news agency that Tuesday’s CNN report contains “zero evidence” that the Russian government was behind the news story.

President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the report as “yet another lie.”

Separately, the upper chamber’s foreign affairs committee deputy chairman Vladimir Dzhabarov said the accusations were “an attempt to push the US against Russia as key players in the Middle East.”

“The report shows that the world has gone crazy – whatever happens, there is a Russian trace there, the trace of Russian hackers,” he said.

Dialogue

Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani expressed regret over the nine nations’ severance of ties with his state, calling it an “unprecedented escalation” and stressing that the strategic choice is to solve any crisisthrough dialogue.

“Honestly, we don’t know if there were real reasons for this crisis or whether it was based on things we’re unaware of,” Al-Thani was quoted as saying during an interview with Al Jazeera.

He added that if there were real reasons, “there wouldn’t have been such an escalation and the media fabrications wouldn’t have portrayed such a wrong image about Qatar in an attempt to undermine its security and stability” based on “false stories and fabrications.”

Deployment ban lifted

As tension in the Persian Gulf mounts, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has partially lifted the temporary suspension of the deployment of overseas Filipino workers to Qatar and allowed those with overseas employment certificates to proceed there.

In a hastily called press conference yesterday afternoon, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said the DOLE crisis committee reached a consensus to allow the deployment “until further assessment of the situation” after consultations with the Department of Foreign Affairs.

– AP, Mayen Jaymalin, Marvin Sy, Delon Porcalla