Qatar arming extremist groups - Funding terrorists is not what friends do

It cannot be right that a state such as Qatar can support extremist Islamic groups while enjoying a lucrative partnership with the West.

Enough is enough. One British hostage has been killed by the savage Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil) and we now know of two more being held captive. Getting them back is, of course, a complex task fraught with moral dilemma. Britain is committed not to pay ransoms. The refusal to do so sends a clear message to political gangsters that kidnapping UK citizens and trying to extort money in return for their release is a waste of time. The UK’s stance is a principled one but, obviously, the actions of terrorists can still end in violent tragedy. The Government has to do all it can to make sure that such kidnappings do not happen in the first place.

Finally, politicians are starting to ask who is financing the people who do these terrible things. Vernon Coaker, the shadow defence secretary, has called on ministers to press states in the Arab region to cease sending funds to the “brutal” jihadists. “These are dangerous people and we have to defeat them and one of the ways to do that is to cut off their source of funding,” Mr Coaker told this newspaper.

Indeed, an investigation for The Telegraph discovered that while oil-rich Qatar denies ever financing Isil, it did become the main patron for an extremist group fighting in Syria called Ahrar al-Sham and that Qatari weapons and money may have reached the Syrian al-Qaeda affiliate. Meanwhile, Western diplomats believe that Qatar supplied arms to the Islamist coalition that captured Tripoli in Libya last month. And Qatar is a longstanding backer of Hamas, the radical Palestinian movement in Gaza. In 2012, Hamas’s political leaders moved their headquarters from Damascus in Syria to Doha, the Qatari capital.

Stephen Barclay, a Tory MP, has suggested that British diplomats might be unwilling to confront the Qataris for fear of frightening away their cash investments in the UK. But speak up they must. Security and the safety of British citizens is priceless – and it cannot be right that a state such as Qatar can, on the one hand, support radical groups and, on the other, enjoy such a lucrative partnership with the West. It should be compelled to do the right thing.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/qatar/11110430/Funding-terrorists-is-not-what-friends-do.html