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http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960310000493

Farsnews

The war of cartoons between Riyadh and Doha has turned into reciprocal insults after Qatar’s state-run news agency quoted the emir as criticizing the US, Saudi Arabia, and its client states for their attempt to stir up tensions with “Islamic power” Iran.

Seven days after the remarks by the Qatari emir, the Saudi media are still releasing different insulting editorials and cartoons which have made the Qatari media respond by releasing cartoons of Saudi King Salman who considers himself as Khadim Al-Haramain Al-Sharifain (the Servant of Muslims’ two holy places in Saudi Arabia).

Last Thursday, an article appeared on Qatar’s state-run news agency, quoting the emir as criticizing the United States, Saudi Arabia, and its client states for their attempt to stir up tensions with “Islamic power” Iran.

A post also appeared on the agency’s Twitter page, quoting the Qatari foreign minister as saying that his country was withdrawing its ambassadors from Kuwait, Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE amid tensions.

The Qatari government soon said that the state agency had been hacked and that the remarks attributed to the emir and the foreign minister had never been made.

The official denial, which was offered several more times, too, nevertheless failed to stop a widening rift from emerging between the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf. Saudi media viciously attacked Qatar, accusing it of having “betrayed” the other Arab countries particularly at a time when they had attempted to stage a show of “unity” against Iran in a much-publicized and extravagant series of events in Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates also blocked Qatari websites and broadcasters.

Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani later said the country was being targeted in a “hostile media campaign, which we will confront.” He was referring to the media blackout.

The Qatari media, including Middle-East Eye, Arabi 21, al-Arab al-Jadid and al-Jazeera couldn’t bear the situation and they also took reciprocal moves by releasing a cartoon of King Salman in a meeting with US President Donald Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as they were inaugurating a center for fighting terrorism and extremism.

In this cartoon, King Salman along with Trump and Sisi have put their hands on an orb. The caption below the cartoon quotes the evil forces as saying: we have been recalled.

One of the evils says: More chaos in the Middle-East. Another says: More children will be killed; and the third says: Oh… kill more people.

The Saudi al-Eqtisadiah newspaper showed angry reactions to the cartoon, saying that the Middle-East Eye has insulted the Khadim Al-Haramain Al-Sharifain.

Two days before this cartoon, Qatar’s al-Jazeera news channel had released a cartoon which showed two people resembling King Salman and Sisi who release fake news on al-Arabiya news channel.

The Saudi and other Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) members grew so furious that al-Jazeera omitted the cartoon and announced that it didn’t mean to insult the Saudi king.

The measure by the Qatari media was in reaction to a similar act by the Saudi media in the past 7 days.

Al-Riyadh newspaper released an insulting editorial against the Qatari Emir and a cartoon of a tree on which the ‘(Persian) Gulf Agreement’ is written and one of its branches is Qatar that is cutting itself off the tree with an axe.

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