By Four States that have boycotted Qatar, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain, have sent Qatar a list of 13 demands it must comply with, according to Reuters.
On June 5, The Gulf states cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, imposed an embargo and shut down air, land and sea borders with the country accusing it of supporting terrorism, interfering in the internal affairs of other Arab countries and destabilizing the region.
The list includes:
- Qatar must sever all ties with terrorist organizations including the Muslim Brotherhood, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda, ISIL, and Fateh Al Sham (formerly knows as the Nusra Front). It must formally declare these organizations as terror groups.
- Stop funding for all organizations or individuals that Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, UAE, US and other countries have designated as terrorists.
- Decrease diplomatic ties with Iran by removing Iranian diplomatic missions in Qatar and conduct trade with Iran only in compliance with US sanctions.
- Shut down Al Jazeera.
- Shut down news outlets funded by Qatar like Muddle East Eye and Al Araby Al Jadeed.
- Shut down a Turkish military base in Qatar.
- Return wanted terrorists and fugitives back to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE and Egypt to their countries of origin.
- Stop interference in sovereign countries’ internal affairs by ending the granting of citizenship to wanted nationals form Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt and Bahrain.
- Qatar must politically, militarily, and economically align itself with the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council), following the 2014 agreement reached with Saudi Arabia.
- Qatar must pay reparations for damages caused by Qatar’s policies in the past few years
- Qatar must end all contact with political opposition groups in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and Egypt. It must also hand over all relevant information detaining Qatar’s contact with these groups.
- Agree to these demands within 10 days or the list becomes invalid.
- Qatar will be audited every month the first year the list goes into effect, quarterly audits in second year and annual audits in following ten years.
Qatar has confirmed that it received the list and said it would look into its content only when the sanctions are lifted, according to Al Jazeera.
Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said it will give its official response to Kuwait, which is serving as a mediator in the crisis.
“The illegal siege has nothing to do with combating terrorism, (but) it is about limiting Qatar’s sovereignty, and outsourcing our foreign policy,” Sheikh Saif bin Ahmed Al-Thani, from Qatar’s Government Communication Office, said.
The diplomatic crisis occurred after Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Al-Hamad Al-Thani allegedly called Iran an “Islamic power” and criticized President Donald Trump over his policies toward Iran on a news website.
Many of the demands such as the closing of Al Jazeera has caused alarm.
“We assert our right to practice our journalism professionally without bowing to pressure from any government or authority and we demand that governments respect the freedom of media to allow journalists to continue to do their jobs free of intimidation, threats and fear-mongering,” Al Jazeera said in a statement.
The diplomatic crisis occurred after Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Al-Hamad Al-Thani allegedly called Iran an “Islamic power” and criticized President Donald Trump over his policies toward Iran on a news website.
However, Qatar reported that the website had been hacked.
U.S. officials told CNN they believe it was Russian hackers.
Iran and Saudi Arabia are at odds over regional issues such as Saudi Arabia’s concern over Iran’s growing influence in regions like Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.