Qatar minister accuses Germany of ‘double standards’ in World Cup criticism

Qatar’s international minister has accused Germany of “double standards” over its criticism of the World Cup host’s human rights report and has defended its summoning of the German ambassador, in a newspaper interview revealed on Monday.

Qatar has confronted intense criticism from human rights teams over its therapy of migrant staff, who together with different foreigners comprise the majority of the nation’s inhabitants.

Qatar’s international ministry final month summoned the German ambassador over Interior Minister Nancy Faeser’s feedback {that a} nation’s human rights report needs to be factored into whether or not they’re chosen as World Cup host.

“On the one side, the German population is misinformed by government politicians; on the other, the government has no problem with us when it comes to energy partnerships or investments,” mentioned Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani instructed the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper in an interview.

“We are annoyed by the double standards,” he mentioned, including that Qatar had confronted a scientific marketing campaign towards it within the 12 years since being chosen to host the World Cup that he mentioned no different nation had confronted.

“It is ironic when this tone is struck in countries in Europe that call themselves liberal democracies. It sounds very arrogant, frankly, and very racist,” he instructed the newspaper.

Al-Thani described requires safety ensures for minorities – which Faeser had requested as a prerequisite earlier than agreeing to attend the World Cup – as superfluous and mentioned German politicians ought to focus extra on hate crimes occurring inside their nation’s personal borders.