Obaid Al-Zaabi

:: Qatar is “misleading” the world over the political row with some of its Arab neighbors, according to the UAE’s permanent representative to the UN.

Ambassador Obaid Al-Zaabi issued a joint statement on behalf of the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt in response to recent claims by Qatar’s foreign minister.

Al-Zaabi was addressing the 36th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

He said that the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt were using their right to reply to comments by the Qatari foreign minister.

These comments reflected “the continuation of the Qatari approach in misleading the international public opinion” about the reality of the political crisis in the Gulf.

Al-Zaabi said that the minister’s claims about Doha’s willingness for dialogue is a mere attempt to enhance the status of Qatar in front of the international community, without any genuine changes having been made.

The joint statement stressed that Qatar should stop supporting extremist and terrorist ideologies and spread of hate speech.

The statement also lamented the lack of wisdom in the speech of the Qatari foreign minister, saying it “does not express any good intentions” to deal positively with Kuwaiti mediation efforts.