Diplomacy best option to resolve crisis: UAE

GCC SEEKS ‘BEHAVIOUR CHANGE, NOT REGIME CHANGE’ IN QATAR

Diplomacy continues to be a priority to resolve the crisis with Qatar although its public disclosure of the Gulf Arab states’ demands undermined Kuwait’s mediation efforts, Dr Anwar Mohammad Gargash, UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, said yesterday.

Addressing a press conference, Gargash said Qatar’s move to leak the 13-point list of demands of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt takes the crisis back to square one. Gargash reiterated that Qatar has to change its behaviour of supporting terrorism. “We are not talking about changing the regime in Qatar but about changing its behaviour,” he added, saying that the dispute is not related to Qatar’s sovereignty.

The UAE minister ruled out escalation even if Qatar does not respond positively to the demands, but said it will certainly lead to separation. “We hope that Qatar will recognise the consequences of its policy against neighbouring countries and that wisdom will prevail in Doha. What we are trying to do is just stopping Qatar from supporting terrorism and extremism,” Gargash stressed.

If wisdom dawns on the Qatari government and if it listens to the voice of reason, and begins

implementing the agreements, there has to be guarantees and a system to monitor the implementation of these agreements, he said, reminding that Doha had reneged on its earlier promises.

“We have noticed a US and European interest as they are affected by terrorism. The Europeans are well aware of Qatar’s support to extremist groups,” Gargash said.