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Anwar Gargash denied as false a story in the Washington Post
that cited U.S. officials saying the UAE had orchestrated the
hack of Qatar's state news agency.
"The Washington Post story today that we actually hacked the
Qataris is also not true," he told the London-based think-tank
Chatham House.
Qatar's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, was quoted in May
as praising Gaza's ruling Hamas movement and calling Iran an
"Islamic power".
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt
imposed sanctions on Qatar on June 5, cutting diplomatic and
transport ties with the tiny Gulf monarchy, after accusing it of
financing militant groups and allying with their regional
arch-foe Iran. Doha denies the accusations.
Gargash said the four Arab powers were in the process of
discussing additional sanctions on Doha.
"There will be some tightening of the screws," he said in an
interview on the sidelines of the event, declining to give a
time frame on when new measure could be introduced.
"We will see what are these screws, whether they are financial,
whether they are other, but they completely within our (remit)
as sovereign states."
Yet the UAE would not escalate its boycott by asking companies
to choose between doing business with it or with Qatar, he
added.
Gargash, who also suggested international monitoring of Qatar
was needed, added there were no plans for a meeting between the
two sides under the auspices of Kuwait, a neutral Gulf Arab
country seeking to mediate in the spat.
"We are too early to speak about meetings, before we get a
mediation with some traction," he said.
(Reporting by Karin Strohecker; Writing by Jumana Fraije;
Editing by Alison Williams)
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