Qatar files legal complaint with WTO against Arab countries’ trade boycott

Qatar filed yesterday a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against the “trade boycott” imposed by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain, Reuters reports. “By formally ‘requesting consultations’ with the three countries, the first step in a trade dispute, Qatar triggered a 60 day deadline for them to settle the complaint or face litigation at the WTO and potential retaliatory trade sanctions.” Ostensibly absent from the list of countries whose boycott Doha is challenging is Egypt, but Qatar’s WTO representative Ali Alwaleed al-Thani tells the newswire that “obviously all options are available.”

Meanwhile, Israel is jumping on the anti-Al Jazeera bandwagon. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered his communications minister to look into shutting down the network, which he says “does not cease to incite to violence around the Temple Mount,” Arutz Sheva reports.