UK blacklists former Qatari official over funding terrorist groups

The UK Treasury confirmed on Saturday that Abd al-Rahman bin Umayr al-Nuaymi has been added to a list of terrorist suspects affected by financial bans.
 
The sanctions include freezing Nuaymi’s assets in the UK and preventing any banks with British offices from doing business with him.
 
Nuaymi is accused of sending 1.25 million pounds (USD 1.6 million) a month to terrorists in Iraq.
 
According to the US Department of the Treasury, Nuaymi has funded a number of terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda in Iraq, the forerunner group to ISIL, al-Shabab in Somalia, and other militant groups in the Middle East.
 
The government of UK Prime Minister David Cameron has been criticized for not adding suspected terrorists to the sanctions list.
 
According to British media, Commercial Secretary to the UK Treasury Paul Deighton is facing calls to be dismissed from overseeing the sanctions regime as he is also in charge of attracting major investment from Persian Gulf states.
 
The UK government has also come under fire for its ties with Qatar over its involvement in the funding of terrorists, with a number of British parliamentarians demanding that the UK get tough with the Arab country.
 
According to British daily The Telegraph, wealthy individuals in the Persian Gulf region have raised a major amount of fund for terrorist groups. Arab leaders have either chosen to ignore the matter or are complicit in the funding of the terrorists in Syria and Iraq.