UK minister arrives in Middle East amid calls for greater effort on Qatar crisis

LONDON: Britain’s Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson arrived in the Middle East Friday, amid claims that the UK has been slow to respond to the bitter diplomatic rift between Qatar and four key neighbors.

Johnson is due to meet representatives from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait, amid the regional boycott over Doha’s alleged support of terror groups and Iran.

“The foreign secretary will urge all parties to get behind Kuwait’s mediation efforts, which the UK strongly supports, and work toward de-escalation and Gulf unity for the sake of regional stability,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.

“He will also discuss a range of security and bilateral issues with a particular focus on working together to address the common threats of extremism, radicalization and terrorism.”

But the announcement came on the same day that Britain was accused of having neglected its diplomatic duty in the Gulf crisis.

Lt. Gen. Sir Simon Mayall, a former senior Middle East adviser to the UK Ministry of Defence, said he was “disappointed” not to see the UK having played a significant role in the crisis.

He compared the UK to Germany, which had already dispatched its foreign minister to help in the negotiations.

“My worry is that (Britain is) a bit-part player… Somewhere along the line, I would have liked to see the British government demonstrating that it was really keen to be a leading player in trying to resolve this,” Mayall told Arab News.