DOJ orders affiliate of Qatar-backed Al Jazeera to register as foreign agent

But in a statement to the newspaper, Al Jazeera Media Network said the timing was suspect.

“The UAE has confirmed it presented the United States with preconditions prior to announcing the Abraham Accords, and we received DOJ’s letter the day before the UAE signed the Accords,” the network said. “The Justice Department just gave the UAE what it wanted.”

The rivalry between the two Gulf states stems in part from Doha’s support for Islamists during the Arab Spring and its relations with Iran, Turkey and the Muslim Brotherhood as well as coverage on Al Jazeera that the Emiratis say destabilizes the region and undercuts their own influence. 

In June 2017, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt imposed an economic and diplomatic blockade on Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorism. As a condition for lifting the blockade, the so-called Anti-Terror Quartet demanded the tiny oil-rich peninsula shut down Al Jazeera.

The Middle East’s largest news network says it operates with editorial independence and its content does not reflect the positions of the Qatari government or royal family. The network maintains that its public funding model is more akin to the United Kingdom’s BBC or Canada’s CBC than to Russia’s RT. 

YouTube, however, includes a disclaimer on Al Jazeera’s content that it is funded in part or whole by the Qatari government. And as part of a push for greater transparency on its platform, Facebook reportedly considered labeling the network as “state controlled.”

AJ+ publishes short-form videos and documentaries geared toward millennials that cover a range of domestic and international topics. But the Justice Department says the content is overtly pro-Qatar, including offering “a Qatari-sympathetic view” of the blockade, promoting “a positive view of Iran” and showing support for the Palestinian cause.

The outlet’s staff pushed back at the characterization, with host Yara Elmjouie calling it “absolutely absurd.” 

“This is a politically motivated attack on journalists,” Elmjouie tweeted Tuesday. “It will not stop us from telling the stories we tell — at our own direction, our own control.” 

Sana Saeed, another AJ+ host, called attention to the timing of the Justice Department’s letter.

“It’s funny that Qatar-funded Al Jazeera’s most influential American outlet gets designated a Foreign Agent right in the midst of anti-Qatar Gulf countries recognizing Israel,” Saeed tweeted.

The same day AJ+ was told to register under FARA, Qatari officials were meeting with their counterparts in Washington for the third annual strategic dialogue between the two countries. Speaking at a briefing with Qatari Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo characterized the US-Qatar relationship as one of “true friendship” and called for the region to resolve the Gulf state rift.  

“The Trump administration is eager to see this dispute resolved and to reopen Qatar’s air and land borders currently blocked by other Gulf states.”

Doha is currently hosting peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government in what Pompeo described as “one of the ways that Qatar is promoting stability in the region.”