Qatar accuses UAE of 'violence and hatred' at world court

Qatar accused the United Arab Emirates Wednesday of a "campaign of violence and hatred" against its citizens, urging the International Court of Justice to quash a case brought by Abu Dhabi.

The Persian Gulf states are locked in a battle at the UN's top court, where the UAE on Tuesday asked judges to stop Qatar "severely aggravating" a two-year-old crisis between Doha and other countries in the oil-rich region.

Qatar's lawyers however hit back, saying in fact it was Abu Dhabi who continued with "discriminatory policies that severely impacted Qatari citizens."

"It is the Qatari people who are the true victims in the racial discrimination case, not the government of the UAE," Qatar's representative Mohammed Abdulaziz Al-Khulaifi said. 

This included Abu Dhabi's move to gag the Doha-based and state-funded Al Jazeera global news network, which was accused of spreading "propaganda", the lawyer told the Hague-based tribunal.

"The silencing of... media voices is part-and-parcel of the UAE's campaign to incite violence and hatred against Qataris," Khulaifi said."Qatar has long been engaged in the fight against global terrorism and it continues to be." 

Qatar has faced an economic and diplomatic boycott since June 2017 by Persian Gulf rivals who accused Doha of backing terrorism and being too close to regional rival Iran. 

Doha has repeatedly denied the claims, accusing its rivals of seeking regime change and alleging the UAE broke the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). 

SS