Qatar’s finance minister slams UAE plot to wage ‘financial war’ on the country

It was only a few days ago that a shocking report came out, which accused the UAE of trying to wage an economic war against Qatar and destabilise its currency — the Riyal.

The plan, which was revealed after hacked emails of UAE Ambassador to the United States Yousef Al Otaiba became public, has been heavily criticised. Qatar has since then opened an investigation into the allegations.

Yesterday, Qatar’s Finance Minister Ali Shareef Al Emadi denounced the alleged scheme to destabilise Qatar’s economy during an interview with US TV chammel CNBC.

He said the alleged push to destabilise Qatar's economy is ‘against international laws and against the International Monetary Fund establishment.’

However, Al Emadi said that they would not succeed.

“But the good thing is, they’ll not succeed. Qatar is an open economy, and what they're doing is misleading the international investors,” he said.

Qatar has been suffering from an illegal siege by four Arab neighbours since June 5.

He conceded he doesn’t know if the allegations are true.

“We put an official statement out immediately, and we're doing our investigations here, we're going to look at the numbers and the details if we can get any, and we’re going to come out publicly with the results of the investigation,” he said.

“We’ll take legal measure to make sure that those people are accountable for whatever action they’ve taken against our economy,” he added.

Al Emadi said the ongoing crisis could very well be a turning point for Qatar.

“Whatever problems that those blockade countries were trying to make for Qatar were unsuccessful, and Qatar is still one of the fastest growing economies in the region. The good news is that most of that growth is coming from the private sector and not the hydro-carbon sector that this region is used to,” he said.

The full text of the Finance Minister’s interview with CNBC can be found here.