Unproven Allegations Against Qatar by Anonymous Sourced Reports
The Claim
Qatar has paid for Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, in addition to financing elements of Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood.
News posted on
Emerging story
Die Presse, an Austrian news outlet claimed that Qatar has paid for Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia by providing half a billion dollars for its drones program as well as financing Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Die Presse claimed that a secret service dossier revealed that a rich emirate of Qatar is financing the Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen and thus also attacks on Saudi Arabia. Al Arabiya, The National, The Jerusalem Post, The Gulf News circulated that same claims after the report was published on Die Presse. The claims started circulating across the MENA region between social media users on Facebook and Twitter.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar found some misinformation and inaccurate information in the reports circulating by Die Presse and The National.
Here are some facts:
The Anonymous Jason G.-: This is not the first time Jason G is the anonymous source of unproven allegations against Qatar. Fox News previously published a report claiming that Qatar supplies Hezbollah with money and weapons. Fox News used “Jason G.” as the person who revealed that a member of the royal family allegedly authorized the delivery of military hardware to Hezbollah in Lebanon. The only source for the information mentioned in the reports circulating the claim was an anonymous source.
The news outlets didn’t mention any other source to support the information they reported.
The selective approach in the reports:
The information mentioned in the reports has been chosen selectively such as referring to Fox News’s report that Qatar finances Hezbollah. In addition to using the context, a six-year term by the German Development Minister Gerd Müller accused Qatar of financing Islamic State terrorists. None of the reports mentioned that Germany apologized for the accusations against Qatar. According to Deutsche Welle, the German government said that it had no direct evidence of Qatar funding the “IS” group.
Several unrelated claims against Qatar:
The report relied on a couple of allegations from different time contexts, such as Iran's support for the Houthis, Qatar's support for Hezbollah, claims of Bahrain warning of attacks, and others without mentioning any evidence to prove the claims. It is also noteworthy to mention that the US State Department stated in a statement on its website on August 12 that “The Coordinator for Combating Terrorism, Ambassador Nathan A. Sales, traveled to Doha on August 12 to thank the State of Qatar for its commitment to combating global terrorism and its dedication to establishing a strong partnership with the states. United Nations on counterterrorism and security.”
This is not the first time Qatar has been accused of supporting terrorism. Qatar strongly denied all the accusations and took heavy robust counter-terrorism measures.
