Her Excellency Sheikha Alya bint Ahmed bin Saif
Al Thani, Qatar’s Permanent Representative to
the United Nations
On 19 July, The New York Times published an interview
with Qatar’s Permanent Representative to the United
Nations, HE Sheikha Alya bint Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani.
During the conversation, she stated that the revised
demands by Arab states are a “response to the heat they
have already received” due to their “take-it-or-leave-it
approach”.
On 4 August, The Economist published a letter from HE
Sheikha Alya bint Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani, strongly
refuting the Ambassador of the UAE to the UN’s claim
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that “the action taken by the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain
and Egypt against Qatar is not a blockade”.
Sheikha Alya wrote how “fresh food, water supplies,
and medicine must now be airlifted into Qatar”, further
highlighting that “parents have been forcibly separated
from their young children”. She further highlighted the
suffering of the citizens of the “blockading countries”,
who have been “forced to choose between abandoning
their jobs and families or facing fines and even prison for
disobeying the orders”.
She concluded by quoting HE the Foreign Minister, who
said: “This is a boycott. It is inhumane. It is illegal.”