DUBAI: Economic sanctions imposed on Qatar by three fellow Gulf states do not violate World Trade Organization agreements, a United Arab Emirates official said, after Doha launched a wide-ranging legal complaint at the Geneva-based body this week.
The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain cut ties with Qatar — a major global gas supplier and host to the biggest US military base in the Middle East — on June 5, accusing it of backing militant groups and arch foe Iran, allegations Doha denies.
Qatar made the formal protest at the WTO on Monday by “requesting consultations” with the three countries, triggering a 60-day deadline for them to settle the complaint or face litigation at the WTO and potential retaliatory trade sanctions.
“The sanctions imposed by the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain did not contradict the agreements of the WTO,” UAE state news agency WAM quoted Juma Mohammed Al-Kait, an assistant undersecretary in the Economy Ministry, as saying late on Tuesday.
In what appeared to be the first response to the Qatari move, he said the boycott — which included the severing of diplomatic and travel ties — was in line with articles 21 and article 14 of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), which allows such moves in the case of security exceptions.
The boycotting countries have previously told the WTO they would cite national security to justify their actions against Qatar, using an the almost unprecedented exemption allowed under the WTO rules.
Kait said the agreements did not prevent WTO member states from using economic sanctions to protect basic security interests, or from carrying out the commitments in the United Nations Charter to maintain peace and security, WAM reported.
The WTO suit does not include Egypt, the fourth country involved in the boycott. Western-backed efforts by Gulf state Kuwait to mediate have yielded little progress so far.
The disputed trade restrictions include Gulf bans on trade through Qatar’s ports and travel by Qatari citizens to the three Gulf countries, blockages of Qatari digital services, closure of sea borders and the closure of airspace to Qatari aircraft.
UAE says measures against Qatar do not violate WTO agreements
UAE says measures against Qatar do not violate WTO agreements
RSF destroying evidence of atrocities in Sudan: report
- Humanitarian Research Lab said the group “destroyed and concealed evidence of its widespread mass killings” in the North Darfur state capital
- In the aftermath of the takeover, it had identified 150 clusters of objects consistent with human remains
PORT SUDAN: Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces group has undertaken systematic mass killing and body disposal in the overrun Darfur city of El-Fasher, a new report has found.
Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL), which has used satellite imagery to monitor atrocities since the RSF’s war with the army began, said on Tuesday the group “destroyed and concealed evidence of its widespread mass killings” in the North Darfur state capital.
The RSF’s violent takeover of the army’s last holdout position in the Darfur region in October led to international outrage over reports of summary executions, systematic rape and mass detention.
The HRL said that in the aftermath of the takeover, it had identified 150 clusters of objects consistent with human remains.
Dozens were consistent with reports of execution-style killings, and dozens more with reports of the RSF killing civilians as they fled.
Within a month, nearly 60 of those clusters were no longer visible, while eight earth disturbances appeared near the sites of mass killing, the HRL said.
It said the disturbances were not consistent with civilian burial practices.
“Largescale and systematic mass killing and body disposal has occurred,” the report determined, estimating the death toll in the city to be in the tens of thousands.
Aid groups and the UN have repeatedly demanded safe access to El-Fasher, where communications remain cut and an estimated tens of thousands of survivors are trapped, many detained by the RSF.
There is no confirmed death toll from the Sudan war which began in April 2023, with estimates at more than 150,000.
Sudan’s de facto leader General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan leads the army while the RSF is headed by his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
The fighting has also displaced millions of people, and created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.
Efforts to end the war have repeatedly faltered.
