Stop using Al Jazeera for aggression: Envoy

Moscow : Bahrain has urged Qatar to stop using its media, including the Al Jazeera broadcaster, to convey aggressive rhetoric toward the kingdom and incite violence, Bahrain’s Ambassador to Russia Ahmed Abdulrahman Saati told Sputnik yesterday. 

“We have been harmed by the broadcast of the Al Jazeera TV channel, with its hostile TV programmes defaming Bahrain as well as its leadership and people, and also [we were harmed by] their documentaries. They are always inviting terrorists, agitating for violations of the order… Qatar must stop supporting terrorist organisations, including financially, and to stop working their channels up against us. Both material and informational support [of terrorists] is interference in our sovereignty,” the ambassador said, answering a question about the conditions of the restoration of relations with Qatar,” Bahrain’s Ambassador to Russia Ahmed Abdulrahman Saati told Sputnik.

Saati said Bahrain had been sending official letters to Qatar conveying that this kind of behaviour was unacceptable, but no appropriate response was received.

After Qatar became the centre of a diplomatic crisis last week, a number of Qatar-based media faced restrictions. Al Jazeera’s Amman and Riyadh bureaus were shut down. Saudi Arabia demanded that Qatar immediately changed the policy and the management of Al Jazeera, so that broadcasting did not run counter to the interests of the countries in the Gulf and the Arab world.