Gargash: Gulf cannot return to what it was before Qatar crisis
UAE minister says best advice is to move beyond escalation and work towards future
Abu Dhabi: The Gulf region will not return to what it was before the Qatar crisis, said Dr Anwar Gargash, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Friday, on his Twitter account.
Dr Gargash added he does not see the Qatar crisis on its third anniversary deserving any comment.
“The tracks were separated and the Gulf changed and it cannot return to the way it was ... the causes of the crisis are known, and the solution is also known and will come in due course ... Perhaps the best advice is to ignore it, move beyond escalation and work for the future,” Dr Gargash said.
On June 5, 2017, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic relations with Qatar and closed their airspace and ports to Qatar-registered planes and ships over accusations it was supporting terrorist and extremist groups.
The row has led to a regional polarisation between Qatar, Iran and Turkey on one side, and the Arab Quartet and other countries on the other.
Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said his country had always sought a civil dialogue without conditions that respected sovereignty and international law. “These positions have not and will not change,” he said on Twitter. Both, however, called for states to look toward the future. Over the past three years, Kuwait has sought to defuse the crisis without success so far. Kuwait has recently renewed its efforts.
The Saudi-led bloc has repeatedly announced a raft of conditions for mending fences with Doha.
The demands include Qatar’s severance of links with militant and terror groups, scaling down ties with Iran and shutting down Al Jazeera TV, seen as a mouthpiece of the banned Muslim Brotherhood. Qatar has refused the conditions, saying they violate its sovereignty.