The four Arab nations that had severed diplomatic ties with Qatar on June 5 are no longer insisting that the country comply with the list of 13 demands they had presented in June, AP reported on Wednesday. The Saudi Arab-led bloc now wants the Gulf nation to accept six broad principles to “combat terrorism and extremism” and put an end to “acts of provocation”.
Abdallah Al-Mouallimi, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United Nations, told a group of UN correspondents that their foreign ministers had agreed to the six principles at a meeting in Cairo on July 5, which, he said, should be easy for the Qataris to accept. Qatar is yet to comment on the matter.
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 initially praised Saudi’s move to isolate Qatar. However, the US had later signed an agreement with Qatar on measures the isolated Gulf nation can take to curb the funding of militancy, and attempted to mediate the crisis.
The list presented to Qatar by the Arab countries demanded that it cut ties with Iran, hand over extremists and shut down Al Jazeera. It also demanded compensation and called for an end to Turkey’s military presence in Qatar, among other things.
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