Saudi, allies unveil Qatar ‘terrorist’ blacklist

TIL Desk/World/Riyadh/ Saudi Arabia and its allies unveiled a “terrorist” blacklist today of 18 organisations and individuals suspected of links with Islamist extremism that they said had ties with regional rival Qatar.

The move by the four Arab governments came despite mounting international pressure to compromise in their weeks- old boycott of their fellow US ally.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt blacklisted nine charity and media organisations and nine individuals “directly or indirectly linked to Qatari authorities” as “terrorist”, a joint statement said.

“We expect Qatari authorities to take the next step and prosecute the terrorist groups and people,” the statement added. The four governments have been boycotting Qatar since June 5 in the region’s worst diplomatic crisis in years.

They sealed the emirate’s only land border, ordered its citizens to leave and closed their airspace and waters to Qatari flights and shipping.  They demanded that Qatar break its longstanding ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, blacklisted as a “terror group” by the four governments although not by the international community.