Qatar crisis deepens as deadline passes and Gulf ministers meet

THE CRISIS between Qatar and other members of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) continued to deepen as the foreign ministers of Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates met in Cairo yesterday.

The meeting took place on the day a deadline expired for Qatar to accept a list of demands or face further sanctions.

Saudi Arabia and its allies on Monday gave Qatar a further two days to accept their ultimatum for restoring relations, after an earlier 10-day deadline expired.

Qatar was given a number of demands, including closing down the Al Jazeera television channel in its capital Doha, cutting back relations with Iran and breaking off ties with groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, which many of the GCC countries consider a terrorist organisation.

Doha responded by labelling the list of demands “unrealistic and not actionable”.

On Tuesday, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani said the issue had nothing to do with terrorism, but was about freedom of speech and autonomy over foreign policy.

Qatar rejected accusations that it was destabilising the region by supporting extremism and terrorism and went on to accuse other GCC countries of breaking international law.

Sanctions against the emirate so far have included Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain closing their airspace and borders to Qatar and forcibly repatriating Qataris, even those married to their citizens.

The restrictions have hurt the oil and gass-rich nation, which is dependent on imports to meet the basic needs of its 2.7 million people.

Iran and Turkey have been helping to bridge the gap by flying in food and other goods to meet the shortfall.