The United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Friday warned Qatar that it faces “divorce” from its Gulf neighbors unless it takes their demands seriously, as the UN offered to help resolve the regional diplomatic crisis.
The list of demands includes the closure of al-Jazeera television, a long-standing source of conflict between Doha and neighboring countries which accuse it of fomenting regional strife.
The Qatar-based broadcaster denounced the move as an attack on media freedom.
UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash issued the warning more than two weeks into the oil-rich region’s worst diplomatic crisis in years.
“It would be wiser that [Qatar] deal seriously with the demands and concerns of the neighbors or a divorce will take place,” he wrote on Twitter.
The demands confirm that “the crisis is profound,” Gargash added.
The affair has also drawn in the US, whose Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has called for Gulf unity.
UN spokeswoman Eri Kaneko said the world body continued “to follow the situation with deep concern.”
“We hope that the countries involved resolve the situation through dialogue,” she said. “We are ready to assist if requested by the parties.”
Qatar is the world’s leading exporter of liquefied natural gas and hosts the biggest US air base in the Middle East.
Gargash accused Qatar of leaking a document containing the demands by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt, which have cut diplomatic ties and accused Qatar of sponsoring terrorism.
Qatar strongly denies such charges.
The demands have not been officially unveiled, but Doha-based al-Jazeera news channel on Thursday said they were handed to Qatar by Kuwait, which is mediating the dispute.
According to the document posted on social media, the four countries demand that Qatar closes al-Jazeera, downgrades diplomatic ties with Iran and shuts a Turkish military base in the emirate.
Al-Jazeera, one of the largest news organizations in the world, said that it “deplores” calls for it to be taken off air.
“We in the network believe that any call for closing down al-Jazeera is nothing but an attempt to silence the freedom of expression in the region and to suppress people’s right to information,” the broadcaster said in a statement.
Al-Jazeera English’s managing director Giles Trendle said it was like “Germany demanding Britain to close down the BBC,” in a video posted on social media.
Qatar is a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council with Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
On June 5, Saudi Arabia and the UAE led a severing of all links with Qatar for allegedly supporting groups, including some backed by Iran, “that aim to destabilize the region.”
Other allies, including Egypt and Bahrain, followed.
Saudi Arabia regularly accuses Iran, its regional rival, of interference throughout the Middle East.
As well as cutting diplomatic ties, Qatar’s neighbors closed their air space to Qatari carriers and blocked the emirate’s only land border, vital for its food imports.
The list of 13 demands circulating on social media also says Qatar must cut ties to groups including the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic State group, al-Qaeda and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.
Qatar is also required to hand over opposition figures wanted by its three neighbors and Egypt.
In addition to al-Jazeera, it must shut online information sites that it supports, according to the reported demands.
“The brother [Qatar] must realize that the solution for its crisis lies not in Tehran or Beirut or Ankara or Western capitals or in media outlets, but in regaining the trust of its neighbors,” Gargash said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese