+ A
A -
TNN/Agencies
DOHA
Qatar is not prepared to change its foreign policy to resolve a dispute with fellow Arab Gulf states and will never compromise, Foreign Minister HE Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani has told Al Jazeera.
"We are not ready to surrender, and will never be ready to surrender, the independence of our foreign policy," Sheikh Mohammed said.
"We have been isolated because we are successful and progressive. We are a platform for peace not terrorism ... This dispute is threatening the stability of the entire region."
Qatar could live under embargo forever, he added."We can live forever like this," the FM said, adding that only 16 percent of Qatar's food imports came through the now-closed land border crossing with Saudi Arabia"and it has been replaced already."
The FM said that"measures had been taken by the Qatari government to ensure that the standards provided to the people will be maintained".
He said Qatar had not yet been presented with a list of demands by the countries that cut off ties with the country on Monday, but he insisted it be solved by peaceful means.
"There cannot ever be a military solution to this problem," he said.
The FM told reporters that Qatar had never experienced this type of hostility, even from an enemy country. He said there had been no change to Qatar's military deployment and no troops had been moved.
He said the Turkish forces coming to Qatar is for the benefit of the security of the whole region. Qatar does not expect any change in the mandate of the US base in the country, he added. He stressed that Qatar respects LNG agreements signed with the UAE.
He pointed that Iran had expressed its willingness to supply the country with foodstuffs and would allocate three of its ports for this purpose.
