Did Qatar Stop the Gas Supply in support of Palestine? Read more
Claim
BREAKING: Qatar is threatening to create a global gas shortage in support of Palestine. “If the bombing of Gaza doesn’t stop, we will stop gas supply of the world. #palastine #Isarael #Qatar #Gazagenocide
Rating
Explanation
The 7 second viral video of the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani is widely spread on social media with the claim stating that if the bombing of Gaza doesn’t stop, they will stop gas supply of the world. We can also see while the Sheikh is reading, there are some Arabic texts that appear in the video.
BREAKING: Qatar is threatening to create a global gas shortage in support of Palestine. “If the bombing of Gaza doesn’t stop, we will stop gas supply of the world.” pic.twitter.com/40UC0wdBOh
— The General (@GeneralMCNews) October 13, 2023
We translated the Arabic verses into English which read “Emir of Qatar: The refugee crisis is the result of regional conflicts, civil wars, and displacement operations based on racism.” This same video is shared by many social media users with similar claims can be seen here, here, here, and here. Come, let’s check the authenticity of this claim.
What’s the truth?
When we started our research using the keyframes of the viral clip, it led us to the original video uploaded to the YouTube channel namely “Aljazeera Mubasher” on 14 May 2017. The video was a lenghtier version of 43 seconds titled as “Emir of Qatar: The Palestinian issue is the issue of a people uprooted from their land and displaced from their homeland.” According to the channel’s description box, the video was “Speech of the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani during the Doha Forum. The seventeenth session, held in the Qatari capital under the slogan “Development, Stability, and Refugee Issues”.
This proves that, the video is six years old and is circulated with false narratives linking it now with the ongoing Israel Hamas war. In reality the original video has been mistranslated or taken out of context creating more panic and confusion in the current scenario.
Also, when we intensified our search, we found the reports published by ‘Doha News’ an online news site based at Qatar has refuted such viral claims on 12 October and stated it as false.
This again proves that, the above viral video is circulated with false claims and the Qatar based news outlet has denied such piece of fake news.
Also, according to the Doha News report, the misinformation was first posted on a Twitter account called “@qattar_affairs,” which has since been suspended. This was noticed when we searched for claims many X users has mentioned the source as @qattar_affairs.
“Qattar_affairs is an account used to try and frame Qatar in a negative light. It masquerades as a legitimate news account and the majority of its content is designed to make it look like a standard Qatar news account, but like many disinfo ops, it will occasionally include obvious disinformation,” Marc Owen Jones, an associate professor of Middle East Studies at Hamad bin Khalifa University in Qatar, told Doha News on Thursday.
Thus, the above evidence clearly proves that, the viral video is old and the piece of news is fake.
Conclusion:
Therefore, we conclude that the viral clip stating Qatar is threatening to create a global gas shortage in support of Palestine, if the bombing of Gaza doesn’t stop is false. Moreover the circulated video is 6 years old and from 2017.
