WEB DESK
Qatar today handed its official response to a list of demands made by Saudi Arabia and its allies to the emir of Kuwait. The response was delivered by Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani who was a short visit to Kuwait. Kuwait is acting as a mediator to resolve the diplomatic crisis.
Sheikh Mohammed Al-Thani reached Kuwait earlier Monday to deliver a message from Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani. No details were provided about the Qatari response but the foreign minister said on Saturday that the demands by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt were made to be rejected.
The Qatari response was delivered hours after the four nations accepted a call by Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah to extend the 10-day deadline for another 48 hours.
The demands include 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.
“The message is about the reply which was prepared earlier by the State of Qatar on the list of collective demands submitted by the State of Kuwait at the end of last month,” Qatar news agency reported.
The deadline imposed by the Arab states for Qatar to comply with a 13-point demand list was yesterday night.
Kuwait has been leading mediation efforts to defuse the Gulf crisis that erupted on June 5 when a Saudi-led bloc of countries cut diplomatic and travel ties with Qatar and imposed a blockade against it.
Speaking to reporters in Rome on Saturday, Sheikh Mohamed had said the demands were made to be rejected, adding that the Arab ultimatum was aimed not at tackling terrorism but at curtailing Qatar’s sovereignty.
But he said Doha remained ready to sit down and discuss the grievances raised by its Arab neighbours.
“The state of Qatar instead of rejecting it as a principle, we are willing to engage in (dialogue), providing the proper conditions for further dialogue.”
The rift erupted last month when Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic and travel ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorism and being an ally of Iran, charges that Doha denies.
The list of 13 demands include closing a Turkish military base in Qatar and shutting the Al Jazeera pan-Arab television network. The TV network has rejected the accusations and said it will maintain its editorial independence.
A State Department official said yesterday that the United States encourages “all parties to exercise restraint to allow for productive diplomatic discussions. We are not going to get ahead of those discussions. We fully support Kuwaiti mediation.”
The rift opened days after US President Donald Trump met Arab leaders in Riyadh and called for unity against regional threats such as Iran and hardline Islamist militant groups.