Saudi Arabia and Arab allies that have cut ties with Qatar will hold talks in Egypt today on the Gulf diplomatic crisis, after Doha said their demands are impossible to meet.
The four Arab nations, which also include the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt, accuse Qatar of supporting extremism, a charge which it denies. They gave the isolated emirate an extra 48 hours to meet their ultimatum after an initial 10-day deadline passed on Sunday.
Saudi Arabia said today the four had received Qatar’s response and that they would respond at the right time.
Foreign ministers from the four countries that broke off diplomatic and trade relations with Qatar are due to meet in Cairo today. A press conference is expected afterwards.
Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani handed an official response on Monday to Kuwait, which is mediating in the dispute, but its contents have not been disclosed. Doha has said it will not bow to pressure and that the demands seem designed to be rejected.
Sheikh Mohammed said yesterday that the list of demands from the four countries is unrealistic and is not actionable. 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.
AIR correspondent reports that as the unprecedented diplomatic rift between the Saudi led Arab nations and Qatar entered the second month today , a working solution evades the Gulf crisis with Doha taking the position that the demands made on it are unrealistic and not actionable.
United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Arab Republic of Egypt had given Qatar 10 days to meet its 13 demands which included shutting down of Al Jazeera network ,downgrading of ties with Iran , stop funding of terrorist organizations like Muslim Brotherhood , Al Qaida and ISIS and closing the Turkish military base.
The response from Qatar has been received and the Foreign Ministers from the four Arab countries are meeting in Cairo today to discuss the further course of action .
Exactly a month ago , these four Arab nations had cut off diplomatic ties with Qatar accusing it of terrorism and promoting instability in the region , a charge which Doha denies.