UAE ‘rejects’ Qatar offer for crisis talks

Foreign minister Gargash says Doha needs to change its policies before a dialogue could take place

Dubai, July 23: 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 said on his Twitter account.

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,” Mr Gargash said.

Earlier, Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said that the emirate was prepared to talk with the four countries lined up against it, but that any resolution must respect its sovereignty and the terms cannot be dictated from outside. Sheikh Tamim had insisted that any deal “must not take effect in the form of diktats but rather through mutual commitments undertaken by all the parties”. The crisis between the regional allies is the worst to hit the Gulf in decades.

OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia and its allies also imposed sanctions on Doha, including closing its only land border, refusing Qatar access to their airspace.