A number of Gulf States are considering fresh economic sanctions against Qatar that include reducing commercial links with countries that continue to trade with Doha and asking trading partners to choose between them or Doha, Al-Jazeera reported on Wednesday.
The United Arab Emirates ambassador to Moscow, Omar Ghobash, said that the Saudi-led bloc could soon give an ultimatum to its trading partners.
“There are certain economic sanctions that we can take which are being considered right now,” Ghobash told The Guardian in an interview published on Wednesday. “One possibility would be to impose conditions on our own trading partners and say: you want to work with us then you have got to make a commercial choice.”
On June 5, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt had severed diplomatic relations with Qatar accusing it of backing terrorism. Other countries in the region had followed. US President Donald Trump had supported the action, but Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis had called for mediation and a quick resolution of the dispute.
The four countries had placed a list of demands before Qatar on June 22. Among its demands, the countries insisted that Qatar shut down state-funded broadcaster Al Jazeera and other news networks, sever relations with the Muslim Brotherhood and also cut all ties with Iran, which has geo-political differences with Saudi Arabia. Qatar had, however, rejected the demands, calling it “neither reasonable nor actionable”.
Ghobash said that if Qatar “was not willing to accept the demands, it is a case of ‘Goodbye Qatar’ we do not need you in our tent any more”.
The countries have not provided any evidence for their claim, while Qatar has repeatedly rejected the allegation that it supports Islamic State and Al Qaeda terrorism.
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