Qatar rejects ‘blockade,’ denies terror allegations

DOHA, Qatar — Arab states have no right to “blockade” Qatar, the country’s top diplomat said Thursday, insisting the campaign by Saudi Arabia and its allies to isolate the tiny, energy-rich nation is based on “false and fabricated news.”

In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani repeatedly denied his country funded extremists and he rejected the idea of shutting down its Al-Jazeera satellite news network.

He said Qatar, as an independent nation, also had the right to support groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, despite the fact its neighbors outlawed the Sunni Islamist organization.

Sheikh Mohammed’s hard line mirrored that of a top Emirati diplomat who told the AP on Wednesday the United Arab Emirates believes “there’s nothing to negotiate” with Qatar.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and other countries severed diplomatic ties with Qatar earlier this week and cut off air, sea and land travel to the peninsular nation.

Kuwait’s emir is working to mediate the Gulf crisis around Qatar, which is home to a major U.S. military base and is the host of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

“If anyone thinks they are going to impose anything on my internal affairs or my internal issues, this is not going to happen,” Sheikh Mohammed said.

Worried residents have responded to the crisis by emptying grocery stores in the capital of Doha, and Saudi Arabia has blocked trucks carrying food from entering the country across its only land border.

Doha is a major international travel hub, but flag carrier Qatar Airways now flies increasingly over Iran and Turkey after being blocked elsewhere in the Middle East. On Wednesday, Emirati officials shut down the airline’s offices in the UAE.

Al-Jazeera’s offices have been shut down by authorities in Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Turkey’s parliament, on the other hand, has approved sending troops to an existing Turkish base in Qatar as a sign of support.

“No one has given them the right to blockade my country, not to allow cars, or my flights to fly over their countries or my ships to park in their port,” the foreign minister said. “No one is giving them the right to separate families and displace people. No one has given them the right to separate Qatari women from their Saudi children, or Emirati women from their Qatari children.”