Terror-Supporting Qatar at Home at the UN

Fellow Arab countries including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Egypt have cut ties with Qatar for its well-known financing of terror organizations - but at the United Nations, Qatari money is always welcome. The "East Lounge" - or as it's usually called now "the Qatar Lounge" - at UN Headquarters in New York was donated by Qatar in 2013 and inaugurated with a ceremonial ribbon-cutting performed by then UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The Qatar Lounge includes the following touches: black and gold embroidered couches, chairs, pillows, and engraved tables, with six gold-colored ornaments reminiscent of minarets. Or, as Ban Ki-moon put it: "I am especially grateful that this lounge reflects Qatari culture." (The Secretary-General neglected to mention that Qatar's culture includes bankrolling terrorist organizations like Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.)



Left photo: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (left) and Khalid Bin Mohamed Al-Attiyah, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the State of Qatar, during the inauguration of the East Lounge at UN Headquarters. Center photo: Khalid Bin Mohamed Al-Attiyah (left), speaks at the inauguration of the East Lounge, alongside Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (right) and Sheikh Meshal Hamad M.J. Al-Thani, Qatar's Permanent Representative to the UN. Right photo: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (left) speaks at the inauguration of the East Lounge at UN Headquarters, alongside Khalid Bin Mohamed Al-Attiyah (right), and Sheikh Meshal Hamad M.J. Al-Thani.



Left photo: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (left) and Khalid Bin Mohamed Al-Attiyah (second from left), cut the ribbon at the inauguration of the East Lounge at UN Headquarters. Right photo: Group photo of officials at the inauguration of the East Lounge at UN headquarters. From left: Yukio Takasu, Under-Secretary-General for Management; Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon; Paul Pendleton of the firm Designs 2000, who designed the Lounge; Khalid Bin Mohamed Al-Attiyah; Michael Adlerstein, Assistant-Secretary-General for the CMP, in charge of the renovation of the UN headquarters complex; Yoon Yeocheol, UN Chief of Protocol; John Ashe, President of the sixty-eighth session of the General Assembly; and Sheikh Meshal Hamad M.J. Al-Thani.



Decorative elements of the East Lounge




The plaque commemorating Qatar's donation of the East Lounge