Anti-Qatar 'terrorism ads' air on US television

The Saudi American Public Relation Affairs Committee has reportedly paid $138,000 for a series of 30-second defamatory adverts, aired on the Washington-based channel, NBC4, on 23 July.

"Qatar finances terrorism and destabilises US allies in the region," the advert said.

Four adverts were shown during advertising breaks during Meet the Press, a weekly news interview show.

Three more were screened during the British Open Golf Championship.

The adverts were purposely targeted at members of the Washington political class, Al Jazeera reported.

A UAE-sponsored documentary, to be shown on Sky News Arabia, also claims that al-Qaeda operative Khalid Sheikh Mohammed received support from Doha in the 1990s.

"Sky News exposes Qatar links of 9/11 attackers," read one headline from a Gulf-based news website.

Yet despite the claims, the documentary mostly relies on hearsay from anonymous sources and provides little in the way of hard evidence.

In similar circumstances, Saudi Arabia and its allies unveiled a new blacklist on Tuesday of 18 "terrorist" organisations and individuals they said had ties with regional rival Qatar.

There were 13 original demands issued by Saudi Arabia and its allies to be fulfilled in exchange for lifting the blockade on Qatar. They included the closure of Al Jazeera and The New Arab, the re-alignment of Qatar's foreign policy to mirror Riyadh's and the submission of Doha's monthly budgetary accounts to Saudi Arabia for "auditing".

The demands were reduced to six following international pressure.

Qatar has strenuously denied the allegations against it.

The flashpoint for the recent crisis was the publication of bogus statements on Doha's state news agency, saying Qatar's emir had spoken fondly of Iran. Qatar immediately denounced the statements and said its media group had been hacked.

US intelligence agencies have said the hack originated in the UAE.