Qatar's ruler said negotiations to end the dispute with its neighbors can begin only after the Saudi-led group ends the embargo on the gas-rich country.
"Our position on the solution hasn't changed," Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said at a conference Saturday in Doha, the Qatari capital. "The blockade should be lifted and the dispute resolved with dialogue based on mutual respect and non-intervention in the internal affairs of states."
Last week, Sheikh Tamim spurned an invitation from Saudi Arabia's King Salman to attend a gathering of Gulf monarchies, which was seen as a sign of thawing relations after 18 months of the Saudi-led boycott that also includes the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt.
The overture came as Saudi Arabia sought to defuse pressure over the killing of a critic in Istanbul. Saudi Arabia's leadership is also under pressure from the U.S. Congress to mend regional divisions and end its war in Yemen.
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(Sarah Algethami contributed to this report.)
