MYSTERY surrounding Qatar's hacking claim deepened on Thursday with Doha claiming that it has been targeted by a hostile campaign, particularly in the US media. Meanwhile, Bahrain and Egypt joined Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in blocking access to websites run by the pan-Arab satellite network Al-Jazeera, after the alleged hack of its state-run news agency. The alleged hack — and a purported fake news report that was published during it — have exposed real tensions in the Gulf between Qatar and other nations over the latter's support of Islamist groups. "There is a hostile media campaign against the state of Qatar, which we will confront," Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed Al-Thani told reporters in Doha, adding that the campaign was "particularly in the United States". "It is surprising that during the past five weeks, there were 13 opinion articles focused on Qatar" in US media, and that the day the Qatari state news agency QNA was "hacked, a conference on Qatar convened without us attending while the authors of those articles were there," he said. "The hacking took place the same evening" as the conference, he said. "Is this a coincidence?" The four-hour cyber attack after midnight Tuesday caused ripples across the Middle East because of the content of the stories, including remarks on "tensions" with the US administration, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and relations with Iran. In an attempt to assuage the frayed tempers in the Gulf, the Qatari foreign minister maintained that Qatar has always been in favor of maintaining strong and brotherly relations with GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries. "In Riyadh we had very positive discussions about the relationship between Gulf countries," he added, referring to talks in the Saudi capital last week during a visit by US President Donald Trump. Qatar's official news agency reported on Tuesday that Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad criticized renewed tensions with Tehran, expressed understanding for the Palestinian Hamas movement and Tehran's ally Hezbollah and suggested Trump might not last long in power. Doha issued a robust denial that the remarks had ever been made and said the news agency had been hacked. Sheikh Mohammed reiterated that the emir had made no such remarks and vowed that investigators assigned to look into the hacking would issue a transparent report. He expressed surprise that Gulf media had continued to report the comments attributed to Sheikh Tamim despite the denial. The hackers also purportedly took over QNA's Twitter feed and posted alleged quotes from Sheikh Mohammed accusing Arab nations of fomenting a plot against his country. A series of tweets said Qatar had ordered its ambassadors to withdraw from Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates over the plot. The tweets were later deleted. Sheikh Saif Bin Ahmed Al Thani, director of the Qatari government's communications office, issued a statement saying authorities had launched an investigation. "The statement published has no basis whatsoever and the competent authorities in the state of Qatar will hold all those (who) committed (this) accountable," Sheikh Saif said. The government later called the state TV footage "fake videos." No group immediately claimed responsibility for the alleged hack. Bahrain and Egypt apparently had blocked Al-Jazeera websites, though authorities did not immediately acknowledge it. Egypt also blocked other websites as well, including that of Mada Masr, a popular online news outlet known for its investigative reports on the Egyptian government. Al-Jazeera said Wednesday it was "studying the reports our channels and digital platforms have been blocked in certain countries in the region." It declined to comment further. — With input from Agencies
