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Tillerson Sits with Ministers of Four Arab States Boycotting Qatar | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Saudi Counterpart Adel Al-Jubeir, SPA


US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sat down with ministers of four Arab states on Wednesday to try to end a dispute with Qatar.

The four countries imposed sanctions on Qatar on June 5, for its financing of extremist groups detrimental foreign policy. Doha denies those accusations. The four states and Qatar are all US allies.

Any resolution of the impasse must address all the key issues for Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt, including Doha’s undermining of regional stability, a senior UAE official said ahead of the talks in Saudi Arabia. His comments shed light on Tillerson’s uphill challenge.

Tillerson met the ministers in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea city of Jeddah in pursuit of an end to the worst dispute among Gulf Arab states since the formation of their Gulf Cooperation Council regional body in 1981. Kuwait, which is mediating in the dispute also sent an envoy.

Tillerson also met separately with Saudi King Salman in talks focused on combating terrorism and its financing, the Saudi state news agency SPA said.

In a joint statement issued after Tillerson and his Qatari counterpart signed a memorandum of understanding on counterterroism efforts, the four countries issued a statement calling the accord inadequate.

Speaking to reporters in Bratislava, UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan said Tillerson’s visit was not likely to resolve the dispute.

“I think it will ease tensions but it’s just postponing the problem, which will grow in the future.”

The crisis goes beyond the financing of terrorism, said Jean-Marc Rickli, a risk analyst at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, pointing to Gulf fears about Iran’s expansionist aims, internal instability and the regional influence of the Muslim Brotherhood as well as competition for regional leadership.

France said its foreign minister would visit the Gulf, including Qatar and Saudi Arabia, on July 15-16 as part of its own efforts to overcome the rift.

In their statement on Tuesday, the four boycotting states said they appreciated US efforts in fighting terrorism.

“… (But) such a step is not enough and they will closely monitor the seriousness of Qatar in combating all forms of funding, supporting and fostering of terrorism,” the statement said, according to the UAE state news agency WAM.

Anwar Gargash, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, tweeted that the dispute was rooted in an absence of trust and that any solution must address the four states’ grievances.

Qatar hosts Udeid Air Base, the largest US military facility in the Middle East, from which U.S.-led coalition aircraft stage sorties against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

“What makes Wednesday’s meeting in Jeddah difficult is that Tillerson has, since the beginning of the crisis, appeared to be taking the Qatari side,” a commentary published in Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat and Arab News newspapers said on Wednesday.

“Tillerson cannot impose reconciliation, but he could reduce the distance between the parties in the diplomatic rift — all of which are his allies — rather than taking the side of one against the other,” wrote columnist Abdulrahman al-Rashed, the former general manager of the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya channel.