UAE says no talks with Qatar until it revises its policies

The United Arab Emirates, one of four Arab countries that have imposed sanctions on Qatar, said on Saturday that Doha needed to change its policies before a dialogue could take place.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Qatar and imposed an economic boycott last month, accusing it of financing extremist groups and supporting terrorism, charges Doha has repeatedly denied.

UAE minister of state for foreign affairs Anwar Gargash said a call for dialogue by Qatar’s emir Sheikh Tamin bin Hamad al-Thani was welcome, but this could only happen after Doha had made changes.

He did not specify these, but the four countries involved have issued more than a dozen demands, telling Qatar to close down Al-Jazeera television, curb relations with Iran and shut down a Turkish military base.

“Dialogue is necessary and needed but its backbone has to be revision,” Gargash tweeted.

He expressed disappointment with a speech by Sheikh Tamim on Friday, the first the emir had given since the start of the crisis.

“I had hoped that the speech of Sheikh Tamim would be an initiative for revision,” Gargash said. Prolonging the crisis in the Gulf sparked by the isolation of Qatar is not in the interest of anyone, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday as he embarked on a key visit to the region.

“No-one has any interest in prolonging this crisis any more,” said Erdogan before leaving Istanbul airport on the two-day trip that will take him to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and then Qatar.

He accused “enemies” of seeking to “fire up tensions between brothers” in the region.

Over the last few years, Qatar has emerged as Turkey’s number one ally in the Middle East.

But Turkey, going through a turbulent time with the EU and the US, also does not want to wreck its own relations with regional kingpin Saudi Arabia.