Doha
Qatar’s foreign minister on Sunday admitted that talks to resolve the two-year regional spat between between Doha and Riyadh have stalled despite the flurry of diplomacy late last year raised hopes the that the rift was on the mend.
Saudi Arabia, along with its allies the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt, cut all diplomatic, trade and transport ties with Qatar in June 2017.
The four governments accused Doha of backing radical groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, and seeking closer ties with Saudi arch-rival Tehran — allegations Qatar vehemently denies.
“We have always been very open for dialogue, since the start of the Gulf Cooperation Council (regional bloc) crisis,” Qatar’s Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. “It’s been almost three years since the crisis started. We are not the perpetrators of that crisis and we’ve been very open and clear that we are open to any genuine intention to resolve this problem.
“We demonstrated this when there was an opening last year in November. Unfortunately these efforts didn’t succeed and have been suspended at the beginning of January.”
Two Doha-based diplomats said they did not see any indications that the nascent talks could be resumed for the foreseeable future following a burst of engagement at the end of 2019.
Neither side appeared willing to compromise enough for the talks to be viable, one told AFP.
Hopes of a breakthrough were raised when Saudi, along with Bahrain and the UAE, agreed to participate in the Arabian Gulf Cup football tournament in Qatar in December having initially boycotted it. Saudi King Salman then invited Qatar’s ruler Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani to a GCC summit in Riyadh in December, but Qatar ultimately rebuffed Riyadh and instead sent then-prime minister Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al-Thani.
Qatari officials nonetheless suggested that the summit and shuttle diplomacy that began in November had broken a “stalemate”. The rift has seen the two sides trade barbs on everything from access to the Muslim holy city of Mecca to alleged Twitter hacking.
It has also seen families divided, while Qatari businesses face increased costs, including projects linked to the 2022 World Cup, as well as complicating regional travel.
The Saudi-led bloc originally made 13 key demands to resolve the dispute, including Qatar shutting down broadcaster Al Jazeera, downgrading ties with Iran and closing a Turkish military base on its territory.
