Like Theresa May’s response to the London Bridge attack, the United Arab Emirates also feels that “enough is enough” when it comes to those in our region who encourage and fund terrorism.
Our measures against Qatar this week are tough ones. But they come after years of effort to shift Qatar away from a bankrupt two-decade policy of promoting radical Islam. In 2014 the US Treasury singled out Qatar both for its backing of Hamas — whose leaders operated from Qatar’s capital, Doha — and as a source of funds for al-Qaeda.
Yet since then nothing has changed. Hamas is still a favoured guest of the Qatari government, which has failed to crack down on terror financing. It hosts and funds the Muslim Brotherhood, which has not stopped its campaign to destabilise the Arab world and convert it to the cause of jihad.
Yousef al-Qaradawi, the Brotherhood’s chief religious figure, has justified jihadi fatwas. He still has close ties to the Qatari government. The link between the Brotherhood, al-Qaeda and Isis is clear. The leaders of al-Qaeda and Isis are graduates of the Brotherhood’s school of hate. There appears to be a link between the Brotherhood and at least one of the Manchester bombing suspects.
Qatar is clearly using its sponsorship of extremists as a tool of foreign policy. We see terrorism and extremism as a mortal threat to ourselves as well as the West. The link between extremist ideology and terrorist action is very clear. Tackling Qatari support for terrorism is an act of self-defence.
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We tried mediation to solve our dispute in 2014. The Qataris told us one thing to our faces and did another behind our backs. They carried on funding al-Qaeda in Syria and Libya, and continued to give a home to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. They recklessly paid a vast ransom to Islamist gangs in Iraq and Syria. They wanted to ride the tiger of Islamic extremism and hang the consequences.
It became clear, after the Riyadh summit with President Trump last month, that they were trying to undermine the consensus we reached — to stand firm against extremism and not pretend it can be divorced from terrorism.
Sanctions were a strong measure to take. We hope nothing further is needed and that wiser and cooler heads will prevail in Qatar. We have no intention of breaking up the Gulf Cooperation Council, which is key to stability in this region. We will not, though, accept any more empty promises. Enough is enough. Qatar must cut its links with terrorism and the networks of extremism and hatred that spawn terror.
Dr Anwar Gargash is minister of state for foreign affairs of the UAE