Qatar has accused UAE for running “a campaign of violence and hatred” against its citizens at an International Court of Justice (ICJ) hearing held in The Hague yesterday.

While also urging the world court to nullify a case brought by Abu Dhabi against it, Qatar said that in fact it was Abu Dhabi that continued with “discriminatory policies that severely impacted Qatari citizens.”

The two Gulf States have been gripped in an ongoing dispute at the United Nations’ top court where the UAE on Tuesday asked judges to stop Qatar from “severely aggravating” a two-year-old crisis between Doha and other countries in the Gulf region.

EN DIRECT: le Qatar entame son premier tour d’observations orales sur la demande en indication de mesures conservatoires présentée par les Emirats arabes unis dans l’affaire #Qatar c. #Emiratsarabesunis devant la #CIJ https://t.co/4HFSxCFZAA

— CIJ_ICJ (@CIJ_ICJ) May 8, 2019

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

This involved Abu Dhabi’s attempt to suppress the Qatar’s state-funded Al Jazeera global news network, which was accused of spreading “propaganda,” Al Khulaifi told the international court.

He further said, “The silencing of media voices is part-and-parcel of the UAE’s campaign to incite violence and hatred against Qataris.”

“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 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).

In June 2018, in a case brought by Qatar, the ICJ ruled that the UAE must allow families, including Qatari members to be reunited, and Qatari students must be allowed to complete their education in the UAE.

However, Abu Dhabi on Tuesday went back to court, accusing Doha of blocking its own citizens from accessing Emirati websites to ease travel issues, and therefore failing to honor last year’s judgment.

Khulaifi blocked those claims, saying that Qatar found a “high risk security breach” on the UAE’s website including so-called “malware” designed to infiltrate Qatar’s information systems.

He said Doha told Abu Dhabi about the breach but the UAE was “yet to take steps”.
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Source: AFP