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Till when Qatar will continue in exploiting the loopholes of Security Council sanctions?
The Hill, the US newspaper and website, had identified several necessary procedures to limit the financial facilities that Qatar provides to terrorists, which the international community must take towards Qatar and the banks that enable such suspicious transactions.
An investigation by the Wall Street Journal highlighted the financial facilities that Qatar provides to terrorists who are listed on terrorism list defined by the Security Council, exploiting loopholes in the international sanctions system.
According to the WSJ, the Qatari Khalifa Al-Subaiy is one of the terrorist beneficiaries of the loopholes, he received 120 thousand dollars in one year.
Depending on the Wall Street Journal, The Hill said that the WSJ report should serve as a wake-up to Europe and the rest of the civilized world.
The website pointed out that Al-Subaiy was linked to the most dangerous terrorists in the world, including those responsible for the September 11th attacks, so providing banking facilities to Al Subaiy is a collective failure of all those involved in fighting terrorism around the world.
As for Qatar, it needs to explain to the world why it has allowed such a dangerous person to continue having banking services. Opening bank accounts has become a very tedious endeavour even for the most average of citizens. Banks conduct very strictly with clients, so what if the client is linked to terrorist cases.
Whilst the failure of states in enforcing UN sanctions is something for the international community and international courts to deal with, banking regulators also need to act.
Necessary Procedures
While it is difficult to assess the potential damage from al-Sabaiy's transactions without conducting a transparent and wide-ranging investigation, The Hill had set several points to be taken immediately:
First, the United Nations needs to investigate why loopholes in its own procedures allowed banks to deal with Al Subaiy.
Second, Qatar needs to conduct its own investigations and report to the international community why it has allowed an individual on the UN sanctions list to have banking facilities through its most global bank, and give reassurances that he, and other terrorists, are not afforded banking facilities.
Third, Qatar National Bank needs to conduct its own investigation on this matter and offer to authorities around the world, it also needs to provide details of transactions carried out by the individual named in the WSJ investigation, and give reassurances that others who are on the list are not being provided banking facilities.
Fourth, banking regulators in countries where the bank operates should conduct their own investigations on why this failure happened following the UN list, and employ urgent measures to ensure any potential damage done is mitigated.
