Qatar makes it worse with leaks

Dubai - Qatar has used its wealth over the past decade to exert influence abroad, backing factions in civil wars and uprisings

The UAE on Friday warned that it would part ways with Qatar unless Doha takes seriously a list of 13 demands, including the closure of Al Jazeera television, as a diplomatic crisis drags on.

UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr Anwar Gargash issued the warning more than two weeks after the Arab boycott of Doha. "There is a price for the years of plotting and there is a price to return to the neighbourhood," Gargash said on Twitter.

He also accused Qatar of leaking a document containing the demands by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt, which have cut diplomatic ties and accused Doha of sponsoring terrorism. "The leak (of demands) seeks to derail mediation," he said.

The crisis has also drawn in the United States, whose Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has called for Gulf unity. On Friday, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the UAE sent a 13-point list of demands aimed at dismantling Qatar's two decade-old interventionist foreign policy. Qatar has funded terrorism, fomented regional unrest and has close ties to Iran. An official from one of the four nations, who gave details of the demands on condition of anonymity, told Reuters the offer would be "void" unless Qatar complied within 10 days. The UAE has said sanctions could last for years.

President Donald Trump has backed the sanctions and called Qatar a "funder of terrorism at a very high level".

Qatar has used its vast wealth over the past decade to exert influence abroad, backing factions in civil wars and uprisings across the Middle East. It infuriated Egypt's present rulers and Saudi Arabia by backing a Muslim Brotherhood government in Cairo that ruled for a year until it was deposed by the army in 2013.

The demands, handed to Qatar by mediator Kuwait, tell Qatar to stop interfering in the four nations' domestic and foreign affairs and refrain from giving Qatari nationality to their citizens, the official from one of the sanctioning states said.

They also include severing ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, Daesh, Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Jabhat Fateh Al Sham, formerly Al Qaeda's branch in Syria, and the surrender of all designated terrorists on Qatari territory. It was also ordered to scale down its diplomatic relations with Iran, limit its commercial ties and expel members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards from its territory.

• Qatar Crisis
• MENA