Kuwait City, July 3: Qatar Monday responded to a list of demands from Saudi Arabia and its allies after they agreed to give a defiant Doha another 48 hours to address their grievances.
Details of the response were not immediately available, but a Gulf official said that Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani had delivered it during a short visit to Kuwait, which is acting as a mediator in the crisis.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt had announced in the early hours of Monday they were pushing back a deadline for Qatar to agree to a list of 13 demands they issued June 22.
A joint statement said they were extending the ultimatum, which had been due to expire at the end of the day Sunday, at the request of Kuwait’s emir.
The demands included Doha ending support for the Muslim Brotherhood, closing broadcaster Al-Jazeera, downgrading diplomatic ties with Iran and shutting down a Turkish military base in the emirate.
Sheikh Mohammed had earlier said the list of demands was “made to be rejected”.
Saudi Arabia and its allies announced on June 5 they were severing ties with their Gulf neighbour, sparking the worst diplomatic crisis to hit the region in decades.
They accused Qatar of supporting extremism and of being too close to Saudi Arabia’s regional arch-rival Iran, which Doha has strongly denied.
The crisis has raised concerns of growing instability in the region, home to some of the world’s largest energy exporters and several key Western allies who host US military bases.
German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, who today starts a tour of several Gulf states, called for “serious dialogue” to end the crisis. “We are worried that the distrust and the disunity could weaken all the parties concerned as well as the entire peninsula,” said Gabriel, who will visit Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
Riyadh and its supporters have already severed air, sea and ground links with Qatar, cutting off vital routes for imports including food.
They also ordered Qatari citizens to leave their territories and took various steps against Qatari firms and financial institutions.
It is unclear what further measures will be taken if Qatar fails to meet the demands, but the UAE’s ambassador to Russia Omar Ghobash warned last week that further sanctions could be imposed.As well as expelling Qatar from the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council, Riyadh and its allies could tell their economic partners to choose between business with them or with Doha, he told Britain’s Guardian newspaper. AFP
