A top Emirati security official has said the only way for "Qatar's crisis" to end is if Doha gave up hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup, his comments coming amid the ongoing diplomatic dispute between the energy-rich nation and four Arab countries.
Dubai security Lt. Gen. Dhahi Khalfan, known for being outspoken on Twitter, later wrote Monday his "personal analysis" of what he described as the financial pressure Doha faces in hosting the games had been misunderstood.
FILE- In this May 14, 2010 file photo, a Qatari woman walks in front of the city skyline in Doha, Qatar. The U.S. military says it has halted some military exercises with Gulf countries over the ongoing diplomatic dispute targeting Qatar. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili, File)
But his remarks came as lobbying firms backed by the four nations opposing Qatar in the diplomatic dispute increasingly target the upcoming soccer competition in their criticism.
The tournament has not come up in the demands previously made by the boycotting countries, though losing the World Cup would represent a bitter defeat for the tiny peninsular nation that's pushed itself onto the world stage with its bid and its Al-Jazeera satellite news network.
Qatari officials did not respond to requests for comment on Monday. However, the 2022 tournament's head in Qatar told The Associated Press on Friday the boycott poses "no risk" to the competition being held.
Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all cut diplomatic ties and began a boycott of Qatar on June 5 , in part over allegations that Doha supports extremists and has overly warm ties to Iran.
Qatar has long denied funding extremists and restored full diplomatic ties to Iran amid the dispute. Doha shares a massive offshore natural gas field with Iran that makes its citizens incredibly wealthy.
On Sunday night, Khalfan targeted the FIFA tournament in his tweets.
"If the World Cup leaves Qatar, Qatar's crisis will be over ... because the crisis is created to get away from it," he wrote.
He added: "The cost is bigger than what the Hamadein have planned," likely referring to Qatar's former ruling emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and former Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani. Some believe both still wield influence within Qatar's current government now ruled by the former emir's son, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
Khalfan, who previously has written controversy-catching tweets about Israel and U.S. President Donald Trump, also wrote that Qatar "is no longer our concern," suggesting media in the boycotting countries dial back their coverage of the dispute.
By Monday night, Khalfan returned to Twitter to write that his tweets were his "personal analysis."
"I said Qatar is faking a crisis and claims it's besieged so it could get away from the burdens of building expensive sports facilities for the World Cup," he tweeted.
"That's why Qatar isn't ready and can't host the next World Cup," he added.
As the crisis has dragged on despite mediation by Kuwait, the United States and European nations, Qatar's opponents have begun targeting its hosting of the FIFA cup. They've pointed to allegations of corruption surrounding Qatar's winning bid, as well as the conditions that laborers working in Qatar face in building infrastructure for the games.
While FIFA ethics investigators found that the Qataris used a full range of lavishly funded state and sports agencies to win the 2010 vote to host the tournament, authorities concluded there was no "evidence of any improper activity by the bid team."
When Qatar's sole land border with Saudi Arabia was closed and sea traffic cut off by the boycott, World Cup organizers were forced to instigate a "Plan B," including bringing in supplies from Turkey.
Asked about Khalfan's comments, FIFA said Monday: "We do not comment on speculation."
Hassan al-Thawadi, Qatar World Cup supreme committee secretary-general, told the AP on Friday that the project remained on time despite that.
"We are aiming to make sure that this World Cup leaves a legacy for the people of the Middle East (and) is an opportunity to transform our region towards a sustainable and stable future," he said.
DOHA, Qatar (AP) — They stroll Doha's waterfront promenade and sing softly about children who are now “birds in heaven,” flying free of the pain of the war in Gaza.
For the Palestinian group Sol Band, it seems surreal that weeks ago they were hiding from Israeli shelling.
“I just want the war to end,” said Rahaf Shamaly, the band’s main vocalist and only woman. “I want to return to Gaza, walk and clean up its streets, hug my family, and sing with the band in the place where we started from.”
Five of the band's seven musicians returned to Gaza in August to work on their next album.
“We had a lot of music and performances planned,” said Fares Anbar, the band’s percussionist.
But on Oct. 7, Hamas, along with other militants, attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 others hostage. Israel retaliated with a military campaign that has so far killed more than 35,000 people and leveled large swaths of Gaza.
In April, the five bandmates were able to leave Gaza via Egypt to Qatar.
The band — which formed in 2012 and plays both traditional Arabic songs and their own modern pop songs — has long served as a refuge for its members who grew up in Gaza amid grinding poverty and other hardships. Their home, a 360-square-kilometer (140-square-mile) enclave, has been blockaded for years by Egypt and Israel. Its population of 2.3 million Palestinians has suffered through previous rounds of war between Israel and Hamas, which has ruled the strip since 2007.
“Living under a siege, an occupation, and living through very difficult circumstances … music was my only escape since I was a child,” the band’s founder and percussionist, Said Fadel, said.
Music shaped Fadel's life. His grandfather was one of the first percussionists in the area and his grandmother played the oud, a lute-like stringed musical instrument common in the Middle East and Africa.
Of Sol Band's songs, “Raweq Wa Haddy," or “Chill Down,” is their most famous. The lyrics that promise “great days coming back,” now seem a lifetime away for people who are moving from place to place, hiding from airstrikes.
After returning to Gaza in August to record, the five members of the band filmed themselves surviving the attacks and shared the videos online whenever an internet connection allowed. Music remained their lifeline and their main hope; they created songs, often amid the rubble, with sounds of explosions in the background. They filmed music videos from where they sheltered, urging people not to lose hope and remain resilient in the face of adversity.
Some songs touched on those killed by Israeli airstrikes, particularly children.
“My children are birds in heaven, lucky is heaven to have them,” one song goes. “All my life I hoped to raise them and see them grow up before my eyes.”
In shelters and camps across Gaza, Sol Band's five members held activities for displaced children to keep their minds off what was happening. Anbar, the band's percussionist, even taught some how to keep a beat as a drummer.
They posted videos of themselves in tents, playing the guitar and drums, with smiling children who sang along.
“The children’s interaction with the music, and how they forgot everything that is happening around them … it proved to me the importance of music in our lives and the effect it has in the Gaza Strip,” he said.
The five band members who left Gaza via Egypt to Qatar had been scheduled to perform on the first stop of their tour “The Journey Begins” at a Palestinian culture festival in Doha. Though the band has achieved fame internationally, like other Palestinians they hold travel documents that often involve complicated requirements, and at times they face outright visa rejections.
“Our passports are Palestinian, (and our) birthplace Gaza,” Anbar said. “This made it very difficult for us to get visas.”
With pending shows in Belgium and Tunisia, there is little guarantee that they will make it there. And if their visa situation is not sorted out in Qatar, the five will eventually have to return to Gaza — and an uncertain future.
“Would the plans we had before the war still happen?” asked Hamada Nasrallah, a vocalist. “We have no clear answers.”
From left, Fares Anbar, Abood Qassim, Rahaf Shamaly, Hamada Nasrallah, Ahmed Haddad and Said Fadel of the Gaza Strip-based Sol Band prepare for a practice session in Doha, Qatar, Friday, May, 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Lujain Jo)
From left, Said Fadel, Samir al Borno, Abood Qassim, Rahaf Shamaly, Ahmed Haddad, Fares Anbar and Hamada Nasrallah of the Gaza Strip-based Sol Band pose for a photograph in Doha, Qatar, Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Lujain Jo)
