|
|
#1
06-09-2017, 04:24 AM
|
|||
|
|||
Gulf squeezes Qatar
DOHA: Gulf Arab states piled pressure on Qatar on Thursday as US President Donald Trump and Kuwait's emir worked to end a row and resolve what Qataris say amounts to a blockade of their country, an investment powerhouse and supplier of gas to world markets. With Trump offering to help resolve the crisis, possibly with a meeting at the White House, the United Arab Emirates cut postal ties to Qatar, and close Saudi ally Bahrain reiterated a demand that Doha distance itself from regional foe Iran. Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and several other countries cut their diplomatic and transport ties with Doha on Monday, accusing it of supporting Islamist militants and their arch-foe Iran - charges Qatar says are baseless. **rmally guarded about politics, Qataris expressed outrage. "It is a blockade! Like that of Berlin. A declaration of war. A political, eco**mic and social aggression," a Qatari diplomat said. "We need the world to condemn the aggressors." With food and other supplies disrupted and worries mounting about deepening eco**mic turbulence, banks and firms in Gulf Arab states are seeking to keep business links to Qatar open and avoid a costly firesale of assets. Turkey has brought forward a troop deployment to Qatar and pledged to provide food and water supplies to its Arab ally, which hosts a Turkish military base. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said isolating Qatar would **t resolve any problems. The UAE’s national postal service, Emirates Post Group, suspended all postal services to Qatar, state news agency WAM said, the latest in a ****** of measures narrowing commercial and communications links with Doha. Trump initially took sides with the Saudi-led group before apparently being nudged into a more even-handed approach when US defence officials renewed praise of Doha, mindful of the major US military base hosted by Qatar that serves, in part, as a launchpad for strikes on Islamic State militants. In his second intervention in the dispute in as many days, Trump urged action against terrorism in a call with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, a White House statement said, suggesting a meeting at the White House "if necessary". It said that Trump, in a later call with Abu Dhabi’s crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahayan, called for unity among Gulf Arabs "but never at the expense of eliminating funding for radical extremism or defeating terrorism". Officials from Qatar and its Gulf Arab neighbours embarked on a quickening round of shuttle diplomacy, with the Qatari foreign minister due in Moscow and Brussels and Bahrain’s king visiting his ally Egypt for talks on the crisis. Qatar called for "dialogue and diplomacy". The Qatari ambassador to Washington, Meshal Hamad al-Thani, wrote on Twitter that a key pillar of Doha’s foreign policy was mediation. "Open channels of communication means venues for conflict resolution," he said. But Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said Gulf states could resolve the dispute among themselves without outside help. "We have **t asked for mediation, we believe this issue can be dealt with among the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council," he told a news conference with his German counterpart during a visit to Berlin that was broadcast on Saudi state television. The foreign minister of Oman met fellow GCC member Kuwait’s emir for talks. The Kuwaiti leader went to the UAE and Qatar on Wednesday for talks on the crisis and is **w back in Kuwait. Meanwhile, Qatar’s neighbours kept up a drumbeat of criticism and warnings. In an interview with BBC radio, UAE Ambassador to Russia Omar Saif Ghobash said Qatar had to choose between supporting extremism or supporting its neighbours. "We have all kinds of recordings taking place where they (Qatar) are coordinating with al-Qaeda in Syria," he said. "Qatar needs to decide: Do you want to be in the pocket of Turkey, Iran and Islamic extremists? They need to make a decision; they can’t have it both ways. Saudi Arabia’s al Watan newspaper published what it said was a list of eight "extremist organisations" seen as working to destabilise the region from Qatar, including Qatar’s al Jazeera news channel, that were targeted by Gulf Arab states. Qatar has backed Islamist movements but vehemently denies supporting terrorism. أكثر... 
|
 |
|
|
العرض العادي
