Saudi Arabia Suspends Dialogue With Qatar Following Telephone Call
Saudi Arabia’s is suspending dialogue with Qatar, reports state news agency SPA. The news was announced in a report in which SPA blasted the Qatar News Agency for what it said was “a continuation of the distortion by the Qatari authority of the facts.”
The latest in the diplomatic row between the two countries occurred after earlier Friday news reports that Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani called Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to express his desire to start a dialogue and discuss the demands of the Anti-Terror Quartet (ATQ), comprising Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
That telephone call came just one day after US President Donald Trump called on the two countries to settle differences and offered to mediate while speaking at a press conference at the White House with Kuwaiti Emir Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah.
However, Saudi Arabia was displeased with the way Qatari media reported the outcome of that telephone call.
According to SPA, cited a Saudi official at the Foreign Ministry as saying that what the Qatar News Agency published did not have any relevance to truth.
“It clearly shows that the Qatari authority has not yet understood that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is not ready at all to tolerate the change by the Qatari authority of agreements and facts. This is evident in the distortion of the content of the contact received by the Crown Prince from the Emir of the State of Qatar minutes after its completion,” reported SPA.
The same source said, according to SPA,that contact was made at the request of Qatar, but the misrepresentation of the contact as reported by Qatari media, “proves that the authority in Qatar is not serious in dialogue and continues its previous policies, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia declares that any dialogue or communication with the authority in Qatar shall be suspended until a clear statement explaining its position is made in public and that its public statements are in conformity with its obligations.”
The ATQ in June severed diplomatic relations with Qatar, which it accuses of being close to extremist groups in the Middle East, as well as with Iran.
Qatar has denied those allegations.