US Treasury adds two Qataris to terror list for financing Al Qaeda groups

The US treasury department has designated two Qatari citizens for allegedly helping to fund groups such as Al Nusra Front and Al Qaeda.

The department added Sa’d bin Sa’d Muhammed Shariyan Ka’bi for helping to raise funds for Al Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s affiliate group in Syria while another Qatari Abd al-Latif Bin ‘Abdallah Salih Muhammad Kawari was listed due to his financial support for Al Qaeda.

Ka’bi also reportedly set up a social network to raise funds for terrorists that was later shut down by Qatar’s government, the treasury department noted. He was also reported to have acted as an intermediary for collecting ransom for one of the hostages held by Nusra Front, local daily The National reported.

Kawari allegedly help collect and deliver funds from Qatari donors to Al Qaeda’s network in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Following the designation, all their assets that fall under US jurisdiction will be frozen while all US citizens will be banned from doing business with them.

The US has previously urged Qatar, one of its key allies in the Middle East, to clamp down on the outflow of funds to terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda and Nusra Front.

Although Qatar is a part of the US-led coalition against the hardline Sunni Muslim group ISIL, analysts say that it has done little to stem the flow of financing from domestic sympathisers.

Last year, US treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence David Cohen said that Qatar and Kuwait are still lagging behind in effectively stopping the flow of terror financing.

He described these states as “permissive jurisdictions for terror financing” and said that both the countries had to work harder.

However, the US treasury department also noted that Qatar’s efforts in curbing terror financing has improved ever since the country’s emir Sheik Tamim Al Thani’s meeting with the US president earlier this year.