Gulf tensions: What do Arab countries expect from Qatar?

Arab countries affirm that they have no intention of 'regime change' in Qatar, but only want Qatar to 'change its behavior accordingly'.

Qatar-“Trojan horse” in the Arab world

AP quoted UAE Foreign Minister Anwar Gargash over the weekend as emphasizing that the Arab countries’ isolation of Qatar on the grounds that Qatar sponsors terrorism is not aimed at forcing the Qatari royal family to abdicate. However, this official emphasized that Arab countries are ready to “play tougher” with Qatar if it rejects the Arab countries’ “13-point demands.”

Illustration photo: AP

Foreign Minister Anwar Gargash stressed that the six Gulf countries and Qatar are in a diplomatic crisis and described Qatar as a “Trojan horse” that has broken the close relationship of the Arab Royal Group. Therefore, Qatar deserves to be isolated for a long time if it does not agree to “surrender”.

“We do not want to escalate the tension further, so we have chosen to go our separate ways [referring to pushing Qatar out of the group]. It is difficult to maintain a common community while one of its members actively supports extremist and terrorist views,” said Foreign Minister Anwar Gargash.

Previously, the Arab countries sent a “13-point demand” to Qatar and emphasized that Qatar only had 10 days to implement these demands. The Arab countries also threatened that if Qatar did not “submit”, they would continue to isolate Qatar by land, air and sea indefinitely and increase economic pressure on Qatar.

In response, Qatar said it was considering demands from Arab countries such as closing the Qatar branch of Al-Jazeera and cutting ties with Islamist militant groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood. However, Qatar also firmly stated that there would be no negotiations while the country was still under siege.

Stressful but there is a way out

Although Arab countries have all asserted that their "13-point demands" are an "ultimatum" to Qatar, UAE Foreign Minister Gargash cautiously stated that Arab countries are still open to dialogue with Qatar through the intermediary country Kuwait.

“The job of the mediator is to listen to the views of the parties and find common ground and solutions that are feasible for all parties,” Foreign Minister Gargash stressed.

Qatar itself has denied sponsoring extremist groups or donating money to terrorists. However, it has admitted allowing members of some militant groups such as Hamas to live in Qatar.

However, many Arab countries are still skeptical of Qatar's claims. These countries believe that the branch of Al-Jazeera television channel opened in Qatar is intended to shelter terrorist organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood or Al-Qaeda and that the channel itself has become a "mouthpiece" for them.

In response, Qatar asserted that the demands of the Arab countries are unacceptable. Qatar's communications official Sheikh Saif Al-Thani emphasized: "The demands of the Arab countries once again show Qatar's initial statement that the Arab countries' isolation of Qatar is illegal and has nothing to do with the fight against terrorism. The Arab countries deliberately isolate Qatar to limit Qatar's sovereignty and control our foreign policy."

What demands do Arab countries make on Qatar?

According to UAE officials, the “13-point demands” that Arab countries sent to Qatar were classified information. The UAE also accused Qatar of deliberately leaking the demands, asserting that this showed a “lack of goodwill” to improve Qatar’s situation.

In addition to the demands that have been mentioned by many major news agencies around the world, the "13-point demand" that Arab countries sent to Qatar also has other requests as follows:

- Restrict diplomatic and trade relations with Iran

- Immediately stop funding news outlets like Arabi21, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed and Middle East Eye

- Hand over to Arab countries "terrorists" and individuals wanted by these countries

- Stop providing finance or human resources to organizations listed as terrorists by Western countries.

- Spend an unspecified amount of money to “repair the relationship”

- Stop all contact with opposition factions in the above-mentioned Arab countries./.

According to VOV