UAE responds to Qatar's UN court case with another

Qatar has accused the UAE of fostering an "environment of hate" against its citizens as the Gulf crisis moves to an international court.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE announced in a surprise move that they too planned to file their own case at the UN’s top court against Doha.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt severed ties with Qatar last June over accusations of supporting extremism and being too close to rival Iran, charges Doha has denied.

The four countries enforced a blockade on Doha, closing land, sea, and air links to the country.

Saudi Arabia has threatened to dig a canal across its border with Qatar, effectively making the Gulf peninsula state an island, sparking outrage in Doha.

"Historically the people of Qatar and its neighbours have been close. For decades Qataris and Emiratis have worked together, prayed together and married into each other's families," said Mohammed al-Khulaifi, Qatar's lawyer.

"Despite these close ties" the UAE implemented a "series of broad discriminatory measures against my country and its people on the basis of their Qatari nationality", he told a 16-judge bench at the tribunal.

"The UAE has fostered such an environment of hate against Qatar and Qataris that individuals in the UAE are afraid even to speak to family members living in Qatar," he said.

Qatar says the Saudi-led bloc are seeking regime change in Doha, while the spat has remained in a stalemate.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia in turn announced Wednesday that they will file a separate complaint at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, accusing Qatar of violating their airspace.

No date has yet been set for that hearing. But ICJ judges will over the next three days hear arguments from Doha's lawyers, with the UAE to respond on Thursday. Both will talk on Friday.

'Racial discrimination'

Qatar filed a case and alleged that the tough measures implemented against Qatari residents in the Saudi-led blockade amounts to human rights violations.

It has asked the court - set up in 1946 to rule in disputes between countries - to urgently order the UAE to "cease and desist from all conduct that could result... in any form of racial discrimination against Qatari individuals and entities".

Doha is basing its claim on the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), one of the first global human rights treaties to be adopted, to which both Qatar and the UAE are signatories.

Diplomatic efforts have so far proved fruitless in resolving the crisis in what was previously one of the most stable regions in the Arab world.

Doha is demanding "full reparation, including compensation for the harm suffered as a result of the UAE's actions in violation of the CERD", it said in papers before the court.

The UAE accuses Qatar of sending fighter jets to intercept passenger flights and a civilian helicopter in Bahraini airspace, an accusation denied by Doha.

Two complaints have been filed by the UAE with the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

The four nations have demanded Doha accepts a list of 13 conditions, including shutting Al Jazeera and The New Arab, to open a dialogue to resolve the conflict.

Mediation efforts, mainly led by the emir of fellow Gulf state Kuwait, have so far failed to break the deadlock.

While the crisis has shaken the politics of the region, it has also had serious impact on the lives of ordinary civilians on the ground, a report published last week found, including the separation of families, disrupted imports, including medical resources and construction materials, among other obstacles.

In January, the UN's human rights office accused the four countries of orchestrating a hate campaign against Qatar, which included threats to kill the country's emir.