Qatar boycott is 'sovereign decision', not a blockade: Arab Quartet!

• Obaid Salem Al Zaabi said the UAE has the opportunity to provide all evidences to challenge Qatari allegations.

Obaid Salem Al Zaabi, Permanent Representative of the UAE at the United Nations, in Geneva, has delivered a statement on behalf of the Arab Quartet to the UN Human Rights Council.

The statement was delivered on behalf of UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Egypt during the interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of the unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights.

H.E Mr. Obaid Salem Al Zaabi : "The complaint before the Court is still pending and the #UAE has the opportunity to provide all evidence to challenge Qatari allegations" (5)In a statement delivered as part of the right of reply to allegations made by Qatar in a sttement during the 39th regular session of the council, Al Zaabi said: "The UAE does not consider itself concerned with the report of the Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of the unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights and stresses that it has no connection with these measures."

"We have explained to the Special Rapporteur on several occasions that the decision of the four countries to sever diplomatic relations with Qatar is a sovereign decision and consider it a boycott and not as a blockade as Qatar wants to show to the world," the statement added.

"The decision of the International Court of Justice referred to in the report of the Special Rapporteur relates to temporary measures and the Court has not yet decided definitively on the issue of jurisdiction," Obaid Salem Al Zaabi noted.

"The decision of the Court has met only three of the nine requests submitted by Qatar," he added.

"The complaint before the Court is still pending and the UAE has the opportunity to provide all evidence to challenge Qatari allegations," he further explained.