Qatar given 48 hours to respond to demands of boycotting countries

Four Arab states accusing Qatar of supporting terrorism agreed Monday to a proposal by Kuwait to extend the deadline for Qatar’s response to the demands list by 48 hours, the official Saudi news agency SPA reported.

With the deadline expiring at the end of Sunday, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt decided to give Doha an extension to respond positively to their demands after a request by Kuwait, which is acting as a mediator in the Gulf crisis.

The Kuwaiti government had requested the extension following Qatar’s announcement that it was due to hand over its response to Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah on Monday.

On June 23, the four Arab states issued a list of 13 demands to end the rift with Doha including closing Al-Jazeera television and cutting diplomatic ties with Iran.

They severed ties with Qatar on June 5 over its alleged support for terrorism.

Qatar has called the charges baseless and its foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, said the stiff demands, which include ejecting Turkish troops based there, should be rejected.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)