Qatar Rejects Saudi-Led Demands

Qatar has dismissed a list of demands submitted by four Arab countries as neither reasonable nor actionable.

The list was received by Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on June 22, according to a report by the state-run Qatar News Agency.

“This list of demands confirms what Qatar has said from the beginning-the illegal blockade has nothing to do with combating terrorism; it is about limiting Qatar’s sovereignty, and outsourcing our foreign policy,” Sheikh Saif bin Ahmed Al Thani, director of the Qatari government’s communications office, said in a statement on Friday, Aljazeera reported.

“The US secretary of state recently called upon the blockading nations to produce a list of grievances that was ‘reasonable and actionable’. The British foreign secretary asked that the demands be ‘measured and realistic’. This list does not satisfy that criteria.”

Qatar earlier said it is reviewing the demands and is preparing an official response after confirming the receipt of a document containing demands from several Arab countries that cut ties with it and imposed a blockade against it earlier this month amid a major diplomatic crisis.

“The state of Qatar is currently studying this paper, the demands contained therein and the foundations on which they were based, in order to prepare an appropriate response to it and hand it over to the state of Kuwait,” QNA said, citing a statement by the foreign ministry.

Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani, Qatar’s ambassador to the US, also criticized the list of demands.

“The list of demands circulated in media clearly indicates that this dispute is not about our neighbors’ false terrorism allegations. The list is an attempt to suppress free media and freedom of speech. And infringe upon our sovereignty and punish Qatar for its independence.”

  List of Demands

Kuwait has been acting as a mediator to defuse the crisis that erupted on June 5 when Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt announced they were severing relations with Qatar, accusing it of supporting “terrorism”.

The four countries have not provided any evidence and Qatar has repeatedly denied the allegations as baseless.

Earlier on Friday, reports emerged that the Saudi-led bloc had given Qatar 10 days to comply with 13 demands, which included shutting down the Aljazeera Media Network, closing a Turkish military base and scaling down ties with Iran.

In the document, the countries also alleged that Qatar sever all ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and with other groups, including Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda and the self-styled Islamic State terrorist group.

  Violation of Human Rights”

Qatar National Human Rights Committee has called on Doha not to accept a list of demands submitted by four Arab countries, stating that it contains conditions that violate human rights conventions and other international and regional agreements.

“By accepting those demands and conditions, Qatar will be subject to international accountability and violating its commitments regarding human rights conventions,” NHRC also said in a statement on Friday.

The committee stated that some of the conditions in the list of demands amount to gross violations of human rights, such as the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the right to nationality, and the right to asylum.

“The closure of Aljazeera contradicts all human rights conventions regarding freedom of opinion and expression as well as the protection of journalists, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other instruments issued by UNESCO in addition to the decisions of international human rights conferences,” read the statement.

The NHRC also called for an immediate and unconditional lifting of a blockade imposed by the Saudi-led bloc of countries against Qatar.

“The siege cannot be subject to restrictions or conditions because it is in contravention of international agreements and human rights conventions,” the committee said.

“It should therefore be lifted immediately and unconditionally.”