Qatar says demands list not ‘reasonable’
>> WASHINGTON: Qatar said yesterday that a 13-point list of demands made by Saudi Arabia and its allies impinged on its sovereignty and failed to meet US expectations they be “reasonable”.
The four Arab governments delivered the demands to Qatar through Kuwait on Thursday, more than two weeks after severing all ties with the emirate and imposing an embargo.
In Qatar’s first response to the demands, government communications director Sheikh Saif bin Ahmed al-Thani said yesterday that they went far beyond the four governments’ stated aim of combating terrorism.
“This blockade is not aimed at fighting terrorism but at impinging on Qatar’s sovereignty and interfering in its foreign policy,” Mr al-Thani said.
He recalled that US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had said on Wednesday that Washington wanted a clear list of grievances that was “reasonable and actionable”. This list “does not meet those standards”, he said.
A top UAE official said the Arab countries do not seek to force out the Qatar’s leadership but are willing to cut ties with it if it does not agree to their demands.
Emirati Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash told reporters in Dubai yesterday that his country and its allies, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain, do not want “regime change” in Qatar, but a “behavioural change”.
Qatar insisted on Friday it can indefinitely survive the economic and diplomatic steps its neighbours have taken to try to pressure it into compliance, even as a top Emirati official warned the tiny country to brace for a long-term economic squeeze.
Given 10 days to make a decision, Qatar said it was reviewing the specific concessions demanded of the tiny Persian Gulf nation, which include shuttering Al-Jazeera and cutting ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. But Qatari officials didn’t budge from their previous insistence that they won’t sit down with Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations to negotiate an end to the crisis while under siege.
“I can assure you that our situation today is very comfortable,” Qatari Ambassador to the US Meshal bin Hamad al-Thani said. “Qatar could continue forever like that with no problems.” Asked whether Qatar felt pressure to resolve the crisis quickly, he said: “Not at all.”
All sides seemed to be settling in for a potentially protracted crisis. Qatar’s neighbours insisted their 13-point list of demands was their bottom line, not a starting point for negotiations.
If Qatar refuses to comply by the deadline, the Arab countries signalled, they’ll continue to restrict its access to land, sea and air routes indefinitely, as economic pressure mounts on Qatar.
“The measures that have been taken are there to stay until there is a long-term solution to the issue,” Emirati Ambassador to the US Yousef al-Otaiba said in an interview. Suggesting the penalties would only be economic and diplomatic, he said “there is no military element to this whatsoever”.
Having urged Qatar’s neighbours to come up with “reasonable and actionable” demands, the US sought to distance itself from the crisis the day after the Arab countries issued a list that included several provisions Qatar had already declared it could not or would not accept. But the ultimatum was quickly rejected by Qatar’s ally, Turkey, and blasted as an assault on free speech by Al-Jazeera, the Qatari broadcaster that the gas-rich country’s neighbours are demanding be shut down.
The demands from the Saudis, the Emiratis, the Egyptians and the Bahrainis amount to a call for a sweeping overhaul of Qatar’s foreign policy and natural gas-funded influence peddling in the region. Complying would force Qatar to bring its policies in line with the regional vision of Saudi Arabia, the Middle East’s biggest economy and gatekeeper of Qatar’s only land border.
“This reflects basically an attempt from these countries to suppress free media and also undermine our sovereignty,” said Mr Thani, the Qatari envoy. “They are trying to impose their views on how the issues need to be dealt with in the Middle East.”
The demands include shutting news outlets, including Al-Jazeera and its affiliates; curbing diplomatic relations with Iran; and severing all ties with Islamist groups including the Muslim Brotherhood. The United Arab Emirates said the list was intended to be confidential. Reporters obtained a copy from one of the countries involved in the dispute.
The move by Qatar’s neighbours has left it under a de facto blockade. Although residents made a run on the supermarket in the days after the crisis erupted, the situation has since calmed as Qatar secured alternative sources of imported food from Turkey and elsewhere. Yet resisting the demands could prove difficult.
“The four states can afford to wait, but Qatar cannot,” said Fawaz Gerges, a Middle East expert at the London School of Economics. “This crisis could threaten the political stability of the ruling family in Qatar in the long term if it lasts.”
At the White House, spokesman Sean Spicer called it a “family issue” among Arab states and declined to say whether the demands were legitimate. “This is something that they want to and should work out for themselves,” Mr Spicer said.