Fact Check: Did Kingdom of Qatar Threatens to Stop The Supply if the ‘terrorist’ state of Israel Doesn’t Stop ‘Bombing’ Gaza?
By Ozumi Abdul
Claim: The social media have been overwhelmed in the past two days with the claim that the Kingdom of Qatar is threatening to stop the supply of gas to the world if Israel doesn’t stop its alleged bombing of Gaza.
Full Text: In the viral trending post, that has been trending on social media for the past two days has a claim that the Kingdom of Qatar was threatening to cut off the supply of gas to other countries of the world if Israel refuses to halt the alleged bombing of Gaza. The trending claim is not only on social media, but also published by some international news agencies, and one them is MEHR News Agency,
a semi news agency of the Iranian government, headquartered in Tehran, owned by the Iranian government’s Islamic Development Organization (IIDO). The published claim of Qatar threatening to stop the supply of gas to other parts of the world has the caption thus: “Qatar Warns to Cut Gas Export if Attacks on Gaza Continue”. https://www.google.com/amp/s/en.mehrnews.com/amp/207038/.
The social media, especially the twitter (X) have also blown this claim out of water, with a particular twitter handle, Faarees, that has 129k followers also posting the claim.
“The Kingdom of Qatar threatens to stop the supply of gas to the world if the terrorist state of Israel doesn’t stop bombing Gaza.
“This is the Islamic brotherhood we so need today. #FreePalastine”. ❤????????. The post attracted 44k shares, 1,66k likes, 15 quotes and 170 comments.https://twitter.com/search?q=qatar%20threatens%20gas%20supply&t=hCt3SdDiUcjb01M__VTlbg&s=09.
Aside twitter, other social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube have also hyped this claim.
Verification: The Arab–Israeli conflict is an ongoing inter communal phenomenon involving political tension, military conflicts, and other disputes between various Arab countries and Israel, which escalated during the 20th century, but had mostly faded out by the early 21st century.
The roots of the Arab–Israeli conflict have been attributed to the support by Arab League member countries for the Palestinians, a fellow League member, in the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict. This in turn has been attributed to the simultaneous rise of Zionism and Arab nationalism towards the end of the 19th century, though the two national movements had not clashed until the 1920s.
The war again resurged on October 7, led by Hamas, the de facto government of Palestine in Gaza, when militants invaded Israel from the Gaza Strip.
The attack was met with an Israeli counteroffensive, and Israel formally declared war on Hamas a day later.
Read Also:
The attack began in the early morning with a rocket barrage of at least 3,000 rockets against Israel and vehicle-transported incursions into its territory. Palestinian militants breached the Gaza–Israel barrier, attacking military bases and massacring civilians in neighboring Israeli communities.
At least 1,300 Israelis were reportedly killed including 260 people who were massacred at a music festival. Unarmed civilian hostages and captured Israeli soldiers were also taken to the Gaza Strip, including women and children. The attack unfolded amid conflict between Hamas and Israel that has been ongoing since 2006.
Hamas avoided major engagements with Israel in 2022 and even most of 2023, and instead, appeared to be covertly preparing for their major offensive, Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.
In verifying the authenticity of the claim, PRNIGERIA Fact-Check dug deep to examine the role the Kingdom of Qatar has been playing in the conflicts between Israel and Palestine since the beginning of the conflict, by searching key words.
Our search showed that Qatar which has already mediated between the belligerents several times in the past — such as during the 2014 Israel-Gaza War — is back at the negotiating table, too, even though it has froze relations with Israel in 2009 and is widely known as a major financier of Hamas — which the EU, US, Germany and many other countries have labeled a terrorist organization. https://www.dw.com/en/disputed-qatar-a-good-fit-for-israel-gaza-peace-talks/a-67091112#:~:text=%22Qatar%20has%20long%20had%20a,escalate%20and%20protect%20people%20on. Corroborating this is the story on the Aljazeera website, published on the 7th, of this month that the fresh violence broke out between the two warring countries.
The story confirms that Qatar official has said the Gulf state is acting as a mediator to reduce tensions in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2023/4/7/israel-palestine-qatar-working-to-de-escalate-situation
Also, the story by Reuters five days ago where it reported that Qatar is in talks with Hamas, Israel to swap hostages for prisoners also provides the credence to the Qatar’s effort to broker truce between the warring countries of Israel and Palestine.
During our further search, we discovered that, Two days ago, when the claim was just brewing up, Qatar inked a twentyseven-year deal to
supply France’s TotalEnergies with natural gas for 27 years, its state energy company. With was reportedly announced on Wednesday. https://www.rivieramm.com/news-content-hub/news-content-hub/totalenergies-signs-27-year-spa-for-qatari-lng-78110#:~:text=QatarEnergy%20inks%2027%2Dyear%20deal%20with%20TotalEnergies%20for%20gas%20exports%20to%20France,-12%20Oct%202023&text=The%20cargoes%20will%20be%20delivered,a%20term%20of%2027%20years.
The deal between the two countries was also announced by a news outlet in France, called France24, with the caption: “Qatar inks 27-year gas supply deal with France’s TotalEnergies”https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20231011-qatar-signs-27-year-gas-supply-deal-with-france-s-total-state-energy-firm.
Further more, the claim that the State of Qatar is threatening to punish the other countries of the world with the penalty of cutting off the supply of gas to them has no logical nexus with the country’s government officials comment a year ago, where they said Qatar is “almost impossible” to quickly replace Russian supplies to Europe, as reported by Reuters on February 22,2022 https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/qatar-can-divert-up-15-its-gas-exports-2022-02-22/.
Doha Times has also debunked the claim, noting that Experts has debunked the claim. “Gaza: Experts debunk fake news on Qatar gas supply threats”. https://dohanews.co/gaza-experts-debunk-fake-news-on-qatar-gas-supply-threats/
Verdict: With the above available facts, the claim that the state of Qatar was threatening to withhold gas supplies to the world due to the Israel-Hamas conflict is false and misleading.
