UAE foreign minister: No word on Qatari reply to demands
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — The United Arab Emirates’ top diplomat said on Tuesday that four Arab nations have yet to receive details on Qatar’s response to demands they made as part of a diplomatic crisis gripping the Persian Gulf.
Emirati Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan declined to say what action the countries may take against Qatar. The Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Qatar early last month over its alleged support for extremist groups and ties with Iran.
Qatar denies supporting extremists and has defended its warm relations with Iran; the two countries share a massive undersea natural gas field.
Sheikh Abdullah’s comments suggest the countries are prepared to take further action against Qatar as a 48 hour extension of a deadline for Qatar to accept their conditions draws to a close.
“To defeat terrorism, we must confront extremism, we must confront hate speech, we must confront the harboring and sheltering of extremists and terrorists and funding them,” he said. “Unfortunately, we in this region see that our sister nation of Qatar has allowed and harbored and encouraged all of this. Enough is enough.”
The four countries cut off diplomatic ties to Qatar on June 5 and restricted its access to their airspace and ports while sealing its only land border, with Saudi Arabia. They issued a 13-point list of demands on June 22, giving Qatar 10 days to comply.
After the deadline expired early Monday, the countries said they would give Qatar another 48 hours. The extension came at the request of Kuwait’s 88-yearold ruler, Sheikh Sabah Al Sabah, who has been trying to mediate, as he did during a similar dispute in 2014. That new deadline expires early Wednesday.
Qatar’s foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, traveled to Kuwait City on Monday carrying a handwritten note from Qatar’s ruler, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, according to the state-run Kuwait News Agency.
Kuwaiti and Qatari officials have not responded to questions about what the Qatari letter said.
“We are still waiting for the response from our brothers in Kuwait regarding the paper they received from Qatar,” the Emirati foreign minister said.
Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are scheduled to meet Wednesday in Cairo to discuss the crisis.
Some Arab media outlets have suggested a military confrontation or a change of leadership in Qatar could be in the offing, but officials have said those options are not on the table.