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Tribune News Network
Doha
The blockading countries don't accept Qatar's independence and freedom, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Defense Affairs HE Dr Khalid bin Mohammed al Attiyah has said.
"They don't like our independence, our freedom of speech or the platform we have created to promote dialogue and mediation in the region," Attiyah told the Washington Post.
"They don't want us to be independent," he said.
Attiyah said,"The demands listed by the boycotting countries for lifting the blockade are just a front. They had been planning this for a long time."
The paper commented that with neither side showing any sign of settling the issue, it seems that the dispute will continue indefinitely.
Almost a year after it was imposed, the blockade has failed to weaken the Qatari economy.
"What the siege countries want is to change the regime in Qatar or to force it to make big concessions," said Christian Ulrichtsen, a researcher at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.
"The siege countries realised that they will not get what they want. The US will not abandon Qatar. In absence of an alternative plan, the Gulf crisis lingers on because of the intransigence of the quartet," he said.
Jocelyn Mitchell, an assistant professor at Northwestern University in Qatar, said,"There has always been competition and jealousy from the blockading countries, but the big shock was for them came when Qatar managed to be the face of the Arab world by winning the right to host the 2022 World Cup."
Qatar is working to strengthen cooperation with several allied countries to withstand the hostility of their neighbours.
It has the world's best museums, the leading American universities, and it hosts the largest US air base in the region, and in 2022, Qatar will be the host to the largest sporting event in the world, the world Cup football.
