Qatar changed its position on Sunday from the unified Gulf and Arab stances announced at last week’s emergency summits in Makkah when its foreign minister said Doha had reservations about hardline statements on Iran.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said his country has reservations about the summits “because some of their terms are contrary to Doha's foreign policy.”
Leaders participating at the two emergency summits, particularly Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz, had stressed the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people, including their right to self-determination and the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state according to the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital.
However, the Qatari foreign minister claimed that the “Makkah summit ignored the important issues in the region, such as the Palestine issue and the wars in Libya and Yemen."
Al Thani added: "We hoped the Makkah summits would lay the groundwork for dialogue to reduce tensions with Iran.”
The Saudi response was quick through tweets posted by Minister Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Adel al-Jubeir, who said that countries that are in control of their decisions declare their positions and reservations during the meetings and conferences, not afterward.
He said that the communiqué of the Arab summit stressed the centrality of the Palestinian cause and the establishment of a Palestinian state based the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital.
“Qatar’s distortion of facts is not surprising,” he remarked.
Gulf sources said that “Iranian pressure” was behind the shift in Doha’s stance, adding that “Qatar's Prime Minister Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani attended the Gulf summit, while the reservations were later issued by his deputy.”
Prior to the Qatari reservations, observers hoped that Doha’s presence at the summits would be a chance for agreement to confront challenges and threats surrounding the region.
Although Gulf states were not surprised by the latest Qatari position, Doha’s reservations surely constitute a challenge to the US position.
Anwar Gargash, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, tweeted on Sunday: "It seems to me that to attend and agree in meetings then retract what was agreed upon is either the result of pressure on the vulnerable who lost their sovereignty, bad intentions or lack of credibility, and these factors could be combined.”
For his part, Bahrain’s Foreign Minister, Sheikh Khalid Al-Khalifa said: "We have no interest in prolonging Qatar’s crisis, but it does not want a solution after it disagreed with its brothers, a matter that absolutely does not redound to the benefit of brotherly Qatari citizens, who will remain an integral part of the Gulf’s society whose countries and people are linked by the unity of purpose and a shared destiny.”
