Arab nations demand Qatar shut Al-Jazeera, cut Islamist ties

BEIRUT — Saudi Arabia and three other Arab countries that recently cut diplomatic ties with Qatar issued a harsh list of demands Friday, insisting that the wealthy but tiny Persian Gulf nation shut down the news network Al-Jazeera, abandon ties with Islamist organizations and provide detailed information about its funding for political dissidents.

The demands, presented to Qatar through mediators from Kuwait, risked pulling other powers deeper into the rift by calling on the country to shut down a Turkish military base and to downgrade its ties with Iran — a difficult task given that Iran and Qatar share a large gas field that provides much of Qatar’s wealth.

The demands signaled an escalation in the deepest political crisis among Persian Gulf countries in years, after nations including Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates cut economic, diplomatic and travel ties with Qatar this month, accusing it of supporting terrorism.

Qatari officials did not immediately respond Friday, but they have denied supporting extremists and said that they would neither negotiate while under a blockade nor submit to demands that undermined the country’s sovereignty.

Al-Jazeera, one of the Arab world’s most widely watched satellite news channels, denounced the demand for its closure as an attack on journalism. In a statement posted on its website, AlJazeera said the Saudis and their partners were trying to “silence the freedom of expression in the region and to suppress people’s right to information and the right to be heard.”

All of the nations involved are allies of the United States, and Qatar and Bahrain host large U.S. military bases. But analysts have accused the Trump administration of sending mixed signals, exacerbating the rift.

After the Arab nations announced that they were cutting ties with Qatar, President Donald Trump posted his support on Twitter and even suggested he had been responsible for the move. But that did not stop his administration from signing a previously approved deal for Qatar to buy $12 billion of U.S. F-15 fighter jets.

As the crisis has dragged on, U.S. diplomats have complained that the Arab nations were taking too long to present their demands, and raised questions about whether the charges really had to do with any support for terrorism or were driven by other grievances. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that any demands must be “reasonable and actionable.”