facebooktwittertelegramwhatsapp
copy short urlprintemail
+ A
A -
webmaster

Agencies
Doha
The statements issued on Sunday by the foreign ministers of the four Arab countries that cut ties with Qatar were full of contradictions, Foreign Minister HE Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani has said.
In a statement to Al Jazeera, the FM said the four countries claim their commitment to international laws, but their demands clearly contradict them.
The quartet's foreign ministers held a press conference in Manama, saying the countries will continue to keep current measures against Qatar in place, but are open to dialogue if Doha agrees to certain demands and responds to the 13 demands.
Sheikh Mohammed said the outcome of the meeting was just a set of contradictions to the previous ones."We heard from the officials that Qatar needs to respond to the 13 demands, a clear and explicit list of the same demands, whose clauses confirmed that they were considered null and void after 10 days. And now they again sought response on the same 13 demands," the FM said.
The FM stressed that there was no clear vision but a continuation of the policy of intransigence by those countries and their failure to recognise that the measures taken against Doha were illegal.
"The four countries claim that they respect international laws, but all the actions taken by them were in clear violation of international laws," he said.
Sheikh Mohammed said they claim that these actions were related to their countries' sovereignty and national security, but their demands on Qatar clearly meant to undermine Doha's sovereignty. All these demands were flagrant violations of international human rights laws.
He said the comments of ministers were not clear and were contradicting.
The televised news conference in Manama came more than a month after the Saudi-led bloc cut ties with Qatar. The four states, however, refrained from imposing more punitive measures against Doha.
The group on Sunday acknowledged that Qatari citizens had suffered as a result of their siege.
However, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al Jubeir refused to negotiate on a list of 13 demands on Doha that was received by Qatar more than two weeks after the crisis broke out."These demands are not negotiable. We cannot shrink (the list) down," he said.
"I think this press conference confirms that we are at the first day of the crisis. We have not moved for the last 50 plus days, we haven't moved anywhere," Mahjoob Zweiri, professor at Qatar university, told Al Jazeera.
"It seems they are not convinced and are insisting on the list of demands. They are singing a different song. The international community has a very positive impression about Qatar in fighting terrorism, but the four countries are not sharing the same impression as the international community."
"We should expect reaction from Washington, Germany and the UK very soon," he said.
copy short url   Copy
31/07/2017
17727