SAUDI TO PRESSURE QATAR UNTIL IT TOES THE GCC LINE

jeddah — Saudi Arabia said on Sunday it would keep pressuring Qatar until demands by a bloc of Arab states are met, dampening hopes for a US-mediated resolution to a diplomatic crisis.

“We will continue to take action and we will maintain our position until Qatar responds,” Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir said, speaking alongside his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in the Saudi city of Jeddah.

The bloc’s 13 demands include Doha ending its alleged support for extremist groups, closing a Turkish military base in the country and downgrading diplomatic ties with Tehran.

Qatar “must respond to these requests in order to open a new page,” Al Jubeir said.

The Saudi move came just two days after US President Donald Trump spoke with the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Qatar in a bid to mediate. Trump said he believed the dispute could be solved “fairly easily”.

The Saudi and Qatari rulers spoke by phone on Saturday, raising hope for talks. But Riyadh later suspended the dialogue, accusing Doha of distorting facts by wrongly implying that Saudi Arabia had initiated the outreach.

A UAE minister late on Saturday voiced support for the Saudi decision on Twitter, accusing Qatar of “wasting an opportunity” to resolve the crisis. “I hope that Doha will stop manoeuvring... and act transparently. There is no other way,” Dr Anwar Gargash, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, said on his official Twitter account.

Arab countries and Qatar should enter into direct talks to solve a diplomatic dispute, Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on a trip to Saudi Arabia on Sunday, urging all parties to restore regional unity.

I hope that Doha will stop manoeuvring... and act transparently. There is no other way, Dr Anwar Gargash