In a sign of lack of direction, Saudi bloc now says demands ‘cannot be shrunk’

Almost two months after the start of the illegal siege of Qatar, the crisis shows no sign of dissipating.

Yesterday, top officials from the four Arab countries boycotting Qatar — Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — met in Manama, Bahrain, to evaluate the situation. However, the results of the meeting showed that the Saudi-led bloc was suffering from a distinct lack of direction and was contradicting itself.  

The four countries said they would negotiate with Qatar only if Doha agrees to certain demands and ‘fights terror,’ reported Al Jazeera.

“The four countries are ready for dialogue with Qatar with the condition that it announces its sincere willingness to stop funding terrorism and extremism and its commitment to not interfere in other countries' foreign affairs and respond to the 13 demands,” Bahrain's Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa said after the meeting.

In a clear sign of a lack of direction, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir refused to negotiate on a list of 13 demands on Doha that was received by Qatar more than two weeks after the crisis broke out. The demands had earlier been whittled down to six broad principles, but it now looks to be back.

“(Qataris) speak of every issue except how to put an end to their support of terrorism. These demands aren’t negotiable. We cannot shrink (the list) down,” he said.

The initial rejected list consisted of 13 demands, including scaling down relations with Iran, closing down Al Jazeera and shutting a Turkish military base, which is currently under construction. 

Qatari official reacts

Qatari Foreign Minister HE Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said the new meeting of foreign ministers had only managed to add new contradictions to existing contradictions.

“There’s no clear vision in their statement, but there’s a continuation of the policy of insistence. There’s no acknowledgement that the measures which were taken against Qatar are illegal and unjust,” he was reported as saying by Gulf Times.

“They claim that the steps they took against Qatar are related to their sovereignty and national security; on the contrary these steps violate the international declaration of human rights and international law and the freedom of movement. This is part of the contradictions in the statement,” he added.

The Qatari minister also touched upon the subject of the recent ‘internationalisation of Hajj pilgrimage.’ There had been recent reports which said that Saudi Arabia was making it difficult for Qatari pilgrims to visit the holy site for pilgrimage.   

Sheikh Mohammed said no Qatari official had issued any statement regarding internationalisation of Hajj.