Saudi Arabia says Qatar boycott to remain in place
CAIRO: Arab states that have cut ties with Qatar vowed Wednesday to maintain their boycott of the emirate, criticising its ‘negative’ response to their list of demands to end the diplomatic crisis.
Qatar appealed for ‘dialogue’ to resolve the row while US President Donald Trump spoke to Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al- Sisi to urge all parties “to negotiate constructively”.
The foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, meeting in Cairo, “regret the negative response from Qatar,” they said in a statement.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said Qatar’s response to the bloc’s conditions had ‘no substance’ and “reflects a lack of understanding of the gravity of the situation”.
The talks in Cairo came a month after the four countries severed ties with Qatar, accusing Doha of supporting extremism.
“The boycott will remain,” Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al- Jubeir said at the same news conference in the Egyptian capital.
The four Arab states stopped short of announcing new sanctions but Jubeir said they would “take steps at the appropriate time”.
The UAE state minister for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, predicted more isolation for Qatar.
“Next greater isolation, incremental measures reputational damage stemming from Doha’s continued support for extremism terrorism,” he tweeted.
The demands include Doha ending support for the Muslim Brotherhood and closing broadcaster Al- Jazeera.
Saudi Arabia and its allies have not said what steps they could take next, but there are fears of a wider embargo that would hurt the Qatari economy, with credit ratings agency Moody’s announcing it was changing Qatar’s outlook to negative over the crisis.
The countries issued the 13-point list of demands on June 22, giving Qatar 10 days to respond.
The deadline was extended by 48 hours on Sunday at the request of Kuwait, which is mediating in the crisis, and Qatar handed in the response on Monday.
The contents of the response have not been disclosed, but Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman AlThani said the list of demands “is unrealistic and is not actionable”.