Qatar’s Arab’s neighbours have not only cut ties with the, the gulf country has been given 10 days to comply with a series of demands, including the c
Qatar’s Arab’s neighbours have not only cut ties with the, the gulf country has been given 10 days to comply with a series of demands, including the closure of the Al Jazeera satellite television channel. The 13-point list also insists that Qatar limits its relations with Iran and immediately shut down a Turkish military base and halt military co-operation with Ankara.
The list was drafted nearly three weeks after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic relations and cut land, sea and air links to Qatar, alleging that the Gulf state sponsors terrorism. The wide-ranging demand, which also instructs Qatar to pay reparations to the four countries that initiated the boycott as compensation for its policies, are unlikely to be met, frustrating US efforts to end the dispute that has set important US Gulf allies against each other.
The list of demands encompasses other accusations that have already been denied by Qatar, raising the prospect of deadlock in the worst crisis to hit the Gulf in decades.
Qatar’s foreign minister previously said any demand to close Al Jazeera would be rejected, describing the channel as an internal affair linked to Qatar’s sovereignty that should not be the subject of external interference. Arab states have long complained that Al Jazeera’s Arabic language channel is a propaganda tool that stokes tensions in the region. Al Jazeera insists it has editorial independence.
US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson cancelled a trip to Cancun this week in an effort to bring the dispute between the US allies to an end. He urged the countries to deliver the list to Qatar, which hosts the US’s main military base in the Middle East, after growing exasperated with slow progress.
The list, handed over by Kuwait which is mediating in the dispute, also says Qatar should publicly cut ties with a host of Islamist groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, stop its alleged funding of terrorism and hand over alleged terrorists according to a list determined by the four countries that initiated the boycott against it.
The list specifies that Doha sever ties to radical jihadist groups such as Islamic State, al-Qaeda and its branch in Syria, as well as Lebanon’s Shia group Hizbullah. Qatar, the world’s top exporter of liquefied natural gas, admits that it supports Islamist groups, but denies backing or financing terrorism.
