Doha – Information Office – 16 November 2019

It is well beneath the standards of FoxNews.com to post the November 16, 2019 article by Benjamin Weinthal at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) full of baseless assertions and attacks.

The State of Qatar had no advance knowledge of the attack on commercial vessels in the Gulf of Oman on May 12, 2019. Nowhere in Weinthal’s article does a United States government official or any Western government official corroborate or support Weinthal’s claim. Yet FoxNews.com allows him to use an unseen and unverified report.

In its role as an ally of the United States, Qatar provides unfettered access to a state of the art military base, along with intelligence and logistical support. Significant intelligence sharing takes place and Qatar would never withhold critical intelligence from its allies.

Weinthal misleads and distorts throughout his piece. The Associated Press reported that Weinthal’s employer, FDD, worked with one of the blockading countries paid representative Elliot Broidy to commission and published articles exactly like the FoxNews.com piece, as well as execute an anti-Qatar conference in May2017. As a result, it is not surprising Weinthal and FDD would attempt to advance these false narratives.