Manama: Bahrain’s foreign minister has called for avoiding any form of offence between brothers in the aftermath of the crisis that has hit the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
“Leave the disagreement to the concerned parties. They can handle it. I hope that no one will offend his brother across the border,” Shaikh Khalid Bin Ahmad Al Khalifa on Saturday evening posted on his Twitter account where he has 162,000 followers.
His remarks were immediately praised as a positive step to help ensure that no fuel is added to the fire of the conflict that came out in the open last week when Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates recalled their ambassadors from Qatar, citing divergences in viewpoints and non-compliance with a GCC security pact.
Although at the official level, the fallout of the decision has been discreet, matters are different at the non-political levels. Several columnists and analysts contributed views that often supported the stances of their governments.
In the sports media, UAE sports commentators Faris Awadh and Ali Saeed Al Kaabi resigned from Qatar-based beIn Sports, formerly known as Al Jazeera Sport.
“Today, I ended my cooperation with beIn Sports channels,” Faris posted on the microblog, while Ali used his account to laud the 10 years he spent with the channel before expressing gratitude to all those who supported him.
Neither commentator mentioned the reason for the resignations.
A Qatari daily, however, said that several UAE and Saudi media figures have been instructed by their governments to quit working with the Qatari media.
In Saudi Arabia, Saudi novelist Abdo Khal, who this year became the first Gulf national to win the Arabic Booker prize, has reportedly apologised for not attending the honouring ceremony in Doha this week.
“Going to Qatar now is not fit in light of the political crisis,” he said in remarks carried by local news site Sabq on Sunday.
The novelist whose winning novel depicts the terrible effects of huge wealth was also scheduled to talk about his personal experience and the latest international award.
“Organisers had planned two evenings of activities for me, but with the dramatic political events unfolding and the withdrawal of the Saudi ambassador from Qatar, it was not adequate for me to go to Doha amid this tension,” he said.
Abdo said that he had not been instructed or ordered by anyone not to travel to Qatar for his prize.
“There was no instruction whatsoever from anyone not to go and there was no decision by the Qatari authorities not to allow me to take the prize. This is a personal decision. My instinct is that whenever there is a political crisis, any event could be used to strike a match and start a fire,” he said.
Abdo who writes a column for Saudi daily Okaz said that he had anticipated the standoff between Qatar and some of its fellow GCC countries.
“In three of my columns, I wrote that the Qatari policy would create problems with the GCC countries, especially because of its support to the Muslim Brotherhood. By the way, none of the articles has ever been published by the newspaper,” he said.
