Arab Analyst:

Qatar Stresses Talks with Riyadh, Allies on Equal Footing, Rejects Language of Force

Rasa - Abdel Bari Atwan, the editor-in-chief of Rai al-Youm newspaper, referred to the response given by Qatar to Saudi Arabia and its allies' demands for resumed ties, and said Doha underlined that it doesn’t accept the language of force and wants talks on equal footing.

News ID: 430789

Date: 05 July 2017 - 23:27

RNA - "We need to consider the chances that maybe the reason for Kuwait, as the mediator, to hurry up for informing Saudi Arabia and the UAE of Qatar's response was that it didn’t include any promising hopes to pave the ground for talks," Atwan wrote on Wednesday.

"Qatar blatantly declared that it prefers war to the illogical and provoking demands," he added.

Atwan predicted exacerbation of the crisis in future given the war of words and rhetoric between the Qatari and the UAE officials, and said, "The ministerial meeting among Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain in Cairo on Wednesday can pave the ground for a roadmap to adopt measures for imposing economic sanctions and possibly military action against Qatar."

He also referred to the deployment of Turkish military forces in Qatar, and said their mission has now completely changed and is now focused on preventing coup against the current Qatari government.

Atwan underlined that Riyadh and its allies will not extend the deadline for Qatar for a third time and that the administration of US President Donald Trump might play a bigger role in this crisis and add fuel to its fire.

In relevant remarks earlier this month, Atwan said the developments in the Middle-East have increased the possibility for the formation of new coalitions among Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Russia and even Qatar.

Atwan underlined that exacerbated crisis between the Arab states and Qatar and the decreasing possibility for an agreement to end the current tensions in addition to Ankara's direct interference and dispatch of military forces to Doha all can leave a positive impact on the crisis, specially after ISIL's recent defeats in Mosul and Raqqa.

He added that the relevant sides to the crisis in Syria have focused attention on Qatar and the crisis in its relations with certain Arab states, specially Saudi Arabia. "Turkey and Iran are standing on the side of Qatar. Tehran has sufficed to opening its airspace and ports to the Qatari planes and ships, but Ankara has gone further and sent military forces and tanks to the tiny Persian Gulf Arab country".

Atwan said Turkey is now after a peaceful settlement of the crisis in Syria after realizing that a military solution is impossible and after the US growing support for the Kurds and it has understood that confronting this threat is not possible without allying with Syria, Iraq and Iran in case it loses the US and Saudi support.

Noting that Russian President Vladimir Putin acts like a gate for Erdogan to enter the Iran-Iraq-Syria coalition, and that Qatar may also join this coalition at a later stage, he said that now the interests of Erdogan and Bashar al-Assad have overlapped under the influence of the crisis in Qatar and therefore, there is a possibility for their rapprochement after 7 years of differences.

Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt cut off diplomatic ties with Qatar early June, and suspended air and sea communication one week after the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh, accusing Doha of supporting terrorist organizations and destabilizing the situation in the Middle East.

After more than two weeks, the Saudi-led bloc gave Qatar a 10 days to comply with 13 demands, which included shutting down the Al-Jazeera Media Network, closing a Turkish military base and scaling down ties with Iran.

Meanwhile, Qatar announced that Doha will not meet any of the 13 demands made by Saudi Arabia and its allies, offering instead "a proper condition for a dialogue" to resolve the [Persian] Gulf crisis, but Riyadh reiterated that its demands to Qatar to end the stand-off in the [Persian] Gulf were "non-negotiable".

The split among the Arab states erupted after Trump visited Riyadh where he accused Iran of "destabilizing interventions" in Arab lands.

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