Qatar, which provided support for U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria this week, urged the international community to confront the Syrian regime, highlighting pressure by some of Washington’s Gulf Arab allies to widen its campaign against Islamic State.
Qatar is among five Arab nations including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Bahrain that joined in or supported U.S.-led airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria beginning late on Monday. U.S. officials said Qatar’s role consisted mostly of logistical support.
“The war of genocide being waged and the deliberate displacement carried out by the regime remain the major crime,” Qatar’s ruler, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, told the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The world should work to end “the systematic destruction of Syria” by the Syrian government, he said.
And:
Qatar assured the West on Wednesday it was not aiding Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
A source close to the Qatar government told Reuters Tuesday’s U.S.-led airstrikes would not solve anything. He said it was unfair to target only Islamic State when Assad “has been left to kill his people for years.”
We have been looking for the lesser of a zillion evils in Syria for so long that it has paralyzed us and left Assad as odds-on “evil most likely to survive”. Some have (sort of) jokingly suggested that he somehow orchestrated circumstances to get the U.S. and some allies to kill his enemies for him.
Qatar isn’t giving as much military support to the airstrikes as the other Arab states involved and these comments could lead one to legitimately question whether its claim that it isn’t aid ISIS means it simply isn’t doing so now.
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