Dubai: UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Anwar bin Mohammad Gargash, strongly criticised Doha’s decision to restore full diplomatic relations with Iran.
Qatar’s “sovereign decision should not be shy or confused, but its arrogance and adolescent behaviour makes it so …. Its justification is not convincing,” Gargash said in one of several tweets.
Qatar’s “management of the crisis is characterised by confusion and mismanagement …. It lacks the strategic dimension and the interests of Qatar and its people,” he said.
In a third tweet, Gargash said: “Qatar’s crisis was deepened through (Doha’s) crisis management of burning bridges, squandering of sovereignty and undermined what remained of the mediator’s chances. The wisdom we wished for is completely absent.”
UAE was critical after Qatar announced late last week that its ambassador to Tehran will return to resume his duties in Iran, and that Doha aimed to bolster relations with Tehran.
Shortly afterwards, Bahraini Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid Bin Ahmad Al Khalifa took to Twitter to comment on the Qatari decision.
“For the sake of history, Qatar on the same day it refused to allow its citizens to perform Haj reinstated its ambassador in a country that falsely claims support for Islam and Muslims,” he posted on his Twitter account.
Both UAE and Bahrain, along with Saudi Arabia and Egypt, cut their diplomatic relations with Doha last June over Qatar’s support to terrorism and its interference in the internal affairs of neighbouring and other Arab countries.
In a defiant move, Qatar went on with its announcement and sent back its ambassador to Iran, which it said was looking forward to boost its relations with.
Iran’s semi-official ISNA newspaper announced on Saturday that the Qatari Ambassador to Iran, Ali Hamad Al Sulaiti, arrived in Tehran on Friday and began working Saturday morning.
Qatar pulled its ambassador to Iran in early 2016 in a show of solidarity after attacks on two Saudi Arabian diplomatic posts in Iran following the Saudi execution of a prominent Shiite cleric for terrorism offences.
