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Qatar Ignores Gulf Requests, Stresses Adherence to Kuwait Mediation | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Paris, France. (AP)


Paris, Ankara, London, Kuwait – French President Emmanuel Macron held talks on Monday with the Emir of Kuwait to discuss the rift between Qatar and Arab states, the Elysee Palace said in a statement.

Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber Al Sabah pledged to deploy all efforts to resolve the ongoing crisis in the Gulf.

“It is difficult for us, the generation that built the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) 37 years ago, to see these disagreements between its members, which may lead to undesirable consequences,” he stated, as quoted by Kuwait’s news agency KUNA.

“I personally lived through the first building blocks of this council nearly four decades ago, so it is not easy for someone like me as a leader to stand silent without doing everything I can to bring brothers back together,” he added.

Earlier on Monday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian met with his Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who said that his country supported Kuwait’s mediation efforts and was ready to engage in talks in accordance with international law.

In a news conference held at the Qatari Embassy in Paris, Sheikh Mohammed said: “Whatever is related to the collective security of the Gulf countries, Qatar is ready to negotiate … but we have the right to react to these accusations that we are interfering in their internal affairs.”

The Qatari minister, who earlier met in London with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, stressed that Doha was not interfering in other countries’ internal affairs, adding that it has cooperated with “honesty and transparency” with the different GCC states in all international issues.

Sheikh Mohammed’s visit to Paris came within a European tour that took him to London, Berlin, Brussels and Moscow.

He noted during the press conference that allegations over Qatar’s support to the Muslim Brotherhood were “false”. The Qatari foreign minister also said that Hamas was a resistance movement and not a terrorist group.

In London, Johnson said he would meet this week with his counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE within efforts to resolve the Gulf crisis through mediation.

“I have urged all sides to refrain from any further escalation and to engage in mediation efforts,” he said, following his meeting with the Qatari minister.

Meanwhile, the ambassadors of Saudi Arabia, UAE and the Bahraini Embassy’s charge d’affaires in Turkey met in Ankara on Monday with Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Turkish diplomatic sources said that discussions during the meeting touched on latest developments in the Gulf and efforts exerted by Turkey to ease tension in the region.