By Jaber Al Harami
The Egyptian military targetted the Libyan port city of Derna in the east in its recent early morning raids, although it was not the place where the 21 innocent Egyptian civilians were brutally killed.
Cairo, as we know, launched the military assault on Libya to avenge the killing of its 21 civilians.
But the actual reason was that General Khalifa Haftar who is fighting the Islamic State (IS) as part of the alliance of (Egyptian President Abdul Fattah) El Sisi and his forces are being strongly resisted by Derna.
To recall, Haftar, the retired Libyan general, was recalled to army duty by the internationally recognised government in Libya. Qatar has joined the world in denouncing as criminal the act of killing the 21 innocent civilians in Libya, nevertheless Egypt has been hurling wild and baseless accusations of all kinds against it. Qatar actually expressed reservations against military intervention in Libya. The intervention that followed the killing of the 21 Egyptians has led to the deaths of several innocent people including women and children.
The Qatari stand is consistent with Arab League convention. It says that a member state must not take military action against another state without consulting all the member-states of the League.
So what Qatar has done is just respecting the convention of the Arab League, which has been violated by Cairo.
Qatar has also aired reservations against lifting of a UN ban on weapons on the various warring parties in Libya as that would incite one party against the other and hamper the peace process and dialogue.
Not only Qatar but the fact is that the entire world has condemned Egyptian military intervention in Libya. So Qatar cannot be singled out.
This is not the first time Egypt is hurling insults and wild and baseless accusations at Qatar. Qatar has been ignoring the insults and accusations for the past one-and-a-half years since the coup took place in Egypt.
Senior Egyptian officials and decision-makers have been targetting Qatar and using the choicest vulgar words against it. Such language was not even used by illiterate Arabs before the advent of Islam. Egypt is thus testing the patience of Qatar and its leaders. The accusations have reached such maddening levels that today Qatar is being alleged to be backing terrorism.
Egypt, under its present rulers, has entered a dark tunnel for the first time in its modern history.
Recent media leaks have shown El Sisi hasn’t spared any GCC state. On this issue of Egypt accusing Qatar of supporting terrorism, all the GCC states, in a show of unity, are with Qatar.
