Dubai - The United Arab Emirates' Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said Monday that Qatar accusing UAE of plotting a smear campaign against Doha demonstrates Qatar's "arrogance". On Saturday, Mutlaq al-Qahtani, Qatari Ambassador and Special Envoy of the Minister of Foreign Affairs on Counter-terrorism and Mediation for Settling Conflicts, said in an article for The Wall Street Journal that according to leaked emails, UAE officials were conspiring with various lobby groups about the beginning of the campaign to slander Qatar long before the introduction of the blockade against the state. "It is the country's [Qatar] arrogant position – to accuse the United Arab Emirates' of leading the campaign against it and of opening fronts, including with Saudi Arabia, and at the same time to think that undermining the security of Bahrain and Egypt is a natural right. This is the logic of illogical," Gargash said on Twitter. Additionally, according to Gargash, Doha's counting on outside intervention to resolve the conflict with neighboring countries is incorrect behavior and only leads to prolonging the crisis. In June, Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing Doha of supporting terrorist organizations and destabilizing the situation in the Middle East. The Qatari Foreign Ministry rejected the accusations of Doha's interference in other countries' domestic affairs. Kuwait, acting as a mediator in the crisis, handed over the four Arab states' ultimatum containing several demands to Doha. However, Qatar refused to comply with the demands.
