Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain recall envoys to Doha

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain have recalled their ambassadors to Qatar after accusing Doha of interfering in the internal affairs of their countries. The move came on Wednesday, a day after a [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council ([P] GCC) meeting in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, between foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the UAE, and Oman. In a joint statement, the countries said they "have exerted massive efforts to contact Qatar on all levels to agree on a unified policy... to ensure non-interference, directly or indirectly, in the internal affairs of any member state." Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the UAE said the [P]GCC member states had signed an agreement on November 23, 2013, not to support “anyone threatening the security and stability of the GCC whether as groups or individuals — via direct security work or through political influence, and not to support hostile media.” “But unfortunately, these efforts did not result in Qatar’s agreement to abide by these measures, which prompted the three countries to start what they saw as necessary, to protect their security and stability, by withdrawing their ambassadors from Qatar starting from today, March 5 2014,” the statement said. In the statement, the foreign ministers of the aforementioned states accused Doha of interfering in their countries' internal affairs despite Qatar's emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani’s denial of any interference.

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