Qatar foreign minister asks UK to condemn air embargo
ENGLAND - Qatar’s foreign minister has rushed to London to urge Boris Johnson to condemn the air embargo imposed on the Gulf state, amid an unprecedented regional dispute with its neighbours.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, who was due to meet the UK foreign secretary on Monday, said: “We are asking Britain, the US and all other countries to condemn the illegal measures such as the arms embargo and the break-up of families. Families and kids are begin torn apart.”
Qatar’s foreign minister has rushed to London to urge Boris Johnson to condemn the air embargo imposed on the Gulf state, amid an unprecedented regional dispute with its neighbours.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, who was due to meet the UK foreign secretary on Monday, said: “We are asking Britain, the US and all other countries to condemn the illegal measures such as the arms embargo and the break-up of families. Families and kids are begin torn apart.”
He vowed Qatar would not respond to the crisis by cutting off energy supplies to the UAE through the Dolphin pipeline. The action could bring the UAE to its knees since Qatar provides more than a quarter of annual gas supplied to the Emirates. Demand is currently near its seasonal peak, with the holy month of Ramadan coinciding with rising summer temperatures that boost electricity consumption.
The dispute has the potential to upend longstanding Gulf relations, as well as strengthening the position of Iran, normally seen as an enemy by all Gulf state leaderships. Iran has offered to send food to Qatar, but so far the offer has been rejected as unnecessary. Thani said the Gulf Cooperation Council, the body that brings together all the main Gulf States, is unlikely to be able to go back to normal. “There will be questions about how it operates in the future,” he said.
He said there was still no sign of a specific set of demands being tabled by the anti-Qatari alliance, suggesting the mediation efforts led by Kuwait have not yet borne much fruit. “There is still no clarity yet in what they actually want. We still do not why they have taken these actions and isolated Qatar. It looks as if it is the same reason as before – a dislike of our policy towards Egypt – but no one has the right to impose a foreign policy on a sovereign state.” Thani said al-Jazeera, the Doha-funded broadcaster, would never be closed as a result of external pressure. “That will never happen,” he said. Other Gulf monarchies believe al-Jazeera selectively attacks their actions, but avoids any criticism of Qatar’s ruling family. On Thursday, the pan-Arab satellite network announced it was fighting a large-scale cyber-attack. “There were attempts made on the cybersecurity of al-Jazeera but we are combatting them,” said a senior employee who declined to be named. (The Guardian)