Saudi demands Qatar modify its policies: Report

Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al Faisal has warned there will only be rapprochement between Riyadh and Doha when Qatar “modifies” policies at the centre of their spat, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE earlier this month recalled their ambassadors from Qatar after accusing the fellow Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) state of interfering in their internal affairs and of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood.

“There will be detente if Qatar modifies the policies that are at the origin of the crisis” with its neighbours, Prince Saud said in a short statement published by pan-Arab newspaper Al Hayat on Tuesday. He added that there will be “no American mediation to put an end to the crisis”.

Saudi Arabia at a March 5 meeting of the GCC demanded that Doha shut down the Qatari-owned television station Al Jazeera, an informed source said. Riyadh also called for the closure of two think-tanks based in Qatar, the Brookings Doha Centre and the Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies.

UAE clarifies

Meanwhile, Maryam Al Falasi, Director of Media Department, UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, issued a statement on a news story by Qatar News Agency on Monday night about an audience between Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid bin Mohammad Al Attiyah and the acting UAE Charge d’Affaires in Doha on Monday.

Al Falasi said the UAE Embassy in Qatar had requested on January 5, 2014, the delivery of a message dated December 12, 2013, from His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai,to the Amir of Qatar, His Highness Shaikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, dealing with the UAE’s winning of the bid to host World Expo 2020 in Dubai.

She added that the message was a courtesy the UAE sent to sisterly and friendly countries after the Dubai win of the Expo bid. She also clarified that both the note and meeting had nothing to do with the recent developments which led Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain to withdraw their ambassadors from Doha.