Saudi Arabia-led bloc gives Qatar 48 more hours to accept list of 13 demands
The ongoing illegal blockade of Qatar by GCC neighbours was expected to escalate dramatically from today after Qatar rejected a list of 13 demands and a 10-day deadline to accept the same ended yesterday night.
However, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE agreed to a request by Kuwait to extend by 48 hours Sunday’s deadline for Doha, according to a joint statement on Saudi state news agency SPA.
Earlier, Kuwait had urged the four countries to extend the deadline by 48 hours, so that they can receive Qatari foreign minister HE Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani with Qatar’s response to the demands. Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, who is mediating in the crisis, had requested for the extension.
Al Jazeera reported that Kuwait was now in possession of Qatar’s response to the 13 demands.
While there are no indications about the contents of the official reply, Qatar’s foreign minister had said the list was meant to be rejected.
“Everyone is aware that these demands are meant to infringe the sovereignty of the state of Qatar, shut the freedom of speech and impose auditing and probation mechanism for Qatar,” he said during a visit in Italy's capital, Rome.
“We believe that the world is not governed by ultimatums, we believe that the world is governed by the international law, it’s governed by an order that doesn’t allow large countries to bully small countries,” he added.
The foreign ministers of the four blockading countries are set to meet on Wednesday in Egypt's capital, Cairo, to discuss their next steps.
The demands submitted by blockading nations wanted Qatar to shut down Al Jazeera network, close a Turkish military base and scale down ties with Iran.
The siege imposed on Qatar had led to a humanitarian crisis for many families, with as many as 13,000 people being affected.
Wishing PEACE to ALL..
48 hours means what? When Our Qatar King has replied that all demands are rejected so what they want us to change decision when we did not do any thing.. this is only Saudi and UAE wants to build up their pressure on Qatar because they are jealous for the developing of QATAR so fast... but WE ARE WITH QATAR, WE LOVE QATAR..
This is totally illegal and injustice with the innocent families who are suffering by the blockade by UAE and Saudi Arabia... if there is any matter to discuss they can find out other way to solve the issue.. unnecessary thousands of families, their children are facing and getting trouble to do their studies or business...
the word "PEACE" has long been an elusive goal throughout the middle east...
The announcement of a 48 hrs extension, is usually a positive indication of matters being resolved shortly....
We are positive always.
The demands were meant to be rejected. Hope sense prevails and concerned parties start talking to each other directly.
Back door sounds good...
Back door dialogue should be given more vigor because the problem shall start going down once the parties sit across the table.
The meeting will further tone down the parties.
The meeting will have the potential and ability to find a viable way forward.
Demands and counter demands via media shall only aggravate the crisis, so there should be a direct forum like calling for emergency GCC meeting in order to discuss the issue.
Therefore the goal should be to redouble the efforts for a meeting (without preconditions) and not to comment on the demands and responses via media.
48 more hours... then what?