Ethiopia–Qatar relations

Ethiopia abruptly broke diplomatic ties with Qatar in April 2008, accusing "the output of its media outlets" of "direct and indirect assistance to terrorist organizations," according to an Ethiopian Foreign Ministry statement. The statement further alleged that "Qatar has left no stone unturned to cause harm to Ethiopia's national security".[1] In an interview with Committee to Protect Journalists that November, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wahid Belay said the statement referred to the Al-Jazeera news channel based in Qatar, which had aired a critical series on the plight of civilians in the Ogaden, a part of the Somali Region.[2] The Qatar Foreign Ministry responded with a statement in which they "expressed surprise" at Ethiopia's actions, denying the accusations, and "called on the Ethiopian Government to refrain from involving the State of Qatar in its rifts, recalling that the Ethiopian Government has previously made similar claims but the State of Qatar preferred not to reply out of the hope that the Ethiopian Government would stop such wrong behaviours."[3]

However, Ethiopia's claim was not well taken by the West until recently were the idea of terrorism was more likely linked to a state sponsored in the gulf countries.

In 2005, the countries signed a technical and economic cooperation agreement.[4]