UAE denies reports of involvement in Qatar hacking

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The United Arab Emirates has denied a US media report on its alleged involvement in a hack of Qatar’s state news agency in late May, which is believed to help spark a diplomatic crisis in the Gulf, calling it untrue.

The Washington Post cited unidentified US intelligence officials as saying they had learned last week of newly analyzed information showing that top UAE officials had discussed the planned hacks on May 23, the day before they occurred.

UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar bin Mohammed Gargash in London denied any UAE responsibility for the alleged hacking of the website of Qatar's state news agency.

Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Khaled al-Sabah (C) meets with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (R) and UK National Security Adviser Mark Sedwill (L) during talks at Bayan Palace in Kuwait on July 10, 2017. /VCG Photo

The UAE embassy in Washington on Monday quoted its ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba in a Tweet denying the allegations raised in the Post report.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt all cut off diplomatic and transport ties with Qatar on June 5, accusing it of financing Islamist militant groups and allying with their regional adversary Iran - allegations Qatar denies.

The move came two weeks after Qatar's news agency, QNA, carried a story quoting Qatar's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, as praising Gaza's ruling Islamist Hamas movement and calling Iran an "Islamic power".

Qatar said its emir had never given the speech, and that the story had been planted electronically, but its neighbors were outraged, and one of the most serious feuds in years between Western-aligned Gulf states began.

Foreign ministers of the Saudi-led bloc gathered at a meeting on the Qatar crisis in Cairo, Egypt on July 5, 2017. /VCG Photo

"The information published in the Washington Post on 16 July 2017, which revealed the involvement of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and senior Emirati officials in the hacking of Qatar News Agency, unequivocally proves that this hacking crime took place," Qatar's government said in a statement on Monday.

US officials have said that experts from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) helping Qatar investigate the incident are convinced QNA was hacked, but that identifying the culprit will take time.

In the meantime, Qatar's neighbors have banned its aircraft from their airspace, among other measures, and the wealthy natural gas producer has had to find alternative sources for the food imports on which it heavily relies. Diplomatic efforts by Washington and Kuwait to broker a resolution have so far yielded little.

(With input from Reuters)

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