GCC supports Qatar in dispute with Egypt

Persian Gulf Arab states have voiced support for Qatar in a dispute that Doha is engaged in with Egypt related to airstrikes against ISIL positions in Libya.

In a statement issued on Thursday the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council ([P]GCC) Secretary General Abdullatif al-Zayani stated that the body “rejects accusations by Egypt’s permanent envoy at the Arab League that Qatar supports terrorism.”

According to reports, Egypt’s representative to the Arab League Tariq Adel accused Qatar of supporting terrorism in a meeting of the Arab organization after Qatar’s representative expressed reservations over a clause in the official communique of the meeting welcoming the raids.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry later released a statement, saying that Doha had stressed the need for “consultations before any unilateral military action against another member state.”

Egypt carried out airstrikes against ISIL militant positions in Libya shortly after the release of a video by the Takfiri ISIL group showing the beheadings of 21 Egyptian Christians in Libya on February 15. The Egyptians, whose photos were published in the latest online edition of the ISIL magazine Dabiq, had reportedly been abducted in the Libyan coastal city of Sirte in two attacks in December and January last year.

On February 17, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi called on the United Nations (UN) to adopt a resolution mandating international military intervention in Libya.

The ISIL has released several similar videos from Iraq showing the execution of its captives from different countries, including the United States, Britain, Japan, and Jordan.

The ISIL terrorists have expanded their battles from Syria into the neighboring Iraq, and recently Libya where they engaged in large-scale violence against the civilian population.

According to the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), more than 20,000 foreign militants from over 90 countries, including at least 3,400 people from Western states and more than 150 Americans, have traveled to Syria to join Takfiri ISIL militants groups operating in Syria.