The Kingdom has begun blocking Qatari newspapers and the Al-Jazeera channel's platforms, including Al-Jazeera Net, Al-Jazeera Documentary, Al-Jazeera English, Qatar News Agency, Al-Watan, Al-Rayah, Al-Arab, besides some other newspapers. The ban comes after the statements made by Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani to Al-Jazeera after the recent Riyadh summits. The statements contradicted the Arab, Islamic and international consensus that emerged at the summits. Tamim's statements have also praised Iran as a "major Islamic state" and have defended its policies, calling for de-escalation of the ongoing conflict with Tehran. The statements also praised the so-called Hezbollah as a resistance force against Israel. Al-Jazeera is known to have fueled strife and unrest since its inception. This has been evident many a times, when it has shown a clear bias for known enemies. "Since the launch of Al-Jazeera, it has been looking for excitement to attract Arab viewers," said a political analyst, Abdulrahman Al-Teriri. "It has become a platform for terrorists and terror. We all remember that it was the only channel that broadcast the speeches of Osama bin Laden." Al-Teriri said that the broadcasting of the Bin Laden tapes contributed to the marketing of the Al-Qaeda ideology. "It seems to the simple Arab citizen that the channel stands alongside the oppressed in Gaza and is aligned with the Lebanese resistance against Israel through its support for Hezbollah, which is a branch of the Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon. But the channel fails to address the issue of Qatar-Israel relations," Al-Teriri said.
