{"id":11673,"date":"2017-11-18T06:37:47","date_gmt":"2017-11-18T06:37:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/?p=11673"},"modified":"2017-11-18T06:37:47","modified_gmt":"2017-11-18T06:37:47","slug":"qatar-accuses-saudi-arabia-of-bullying-small-countries-into-submission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/qatar-accuses-saudi-arabia-of-bullying-small-countries-into-submission\/","title":{"rendered":"Qatar accuses Saudi Arabia of bullying small countries into submission"},"content":{"rendered":"

Qatar says Saudi Arabia has been sparking off crises across the Middle East and \u201cbullying small countries into submission,\u201d\u00a0some six months after Riyadh formed an alliance against Doha and imposed a tight blockade on the small Persian Gulf emirate.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani made the remarks during a Friday press conference in\u00a0Washington, DC, adding that Riyadh\u2019s political maneuvers in Lebanon were similar in nature to the Saudi boycott of Doha.<\/p>\n

He further accused the Arab kingdom of triggering a dangerous escalation in the region.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) cut their diplomatic ties with Qatar on June 5, accusing it of sponsoring \u201cterrorism\u201d and destabilizing the region.\u00a0The Saudi-led bloc has also imposed sanctions against the country, including restrictions on Qatari aircraft using their airspace. Doha rejects the claims, saying the boycotters are attacking its sovereignty.<\/p>\n

Later in June, the four Arab countries\u00a0urged Qatar to abide by a 13-point list of demands if it wanted the crippling blockade lifted. The demands included shutting down the Doha-based Al Jazeera broadcaster, scaling back cooperation with Iran, closing the Turkish military base in Qatar, and paying an unspecified sum in reparations.<\/p>\n

Qatar, however, firmly refused to comply, calling the wide-ranging demands \u201cunrealistic, unreasonable and unacceptable.\u201d\u00a0In return, the four feuding countries vowed to impose further sanctions on Doha.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/p>\n
PressTV- Riyadh blackmails princes to fill state coffers: Report<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Report says some of the suspects are keen to secure their release by signing over cash and corporate assets.<\/p><\/div>\n

The top Qatari diplomat further said on\u00a0Friday that his respective country was ready to come to the negotiating table to resolve the dispute with the Saudi-led bloc\u00a0under US mediation, playing down reports that American President Donald Trump has taken Riyadh\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

Al Thani, however, maintained that Doha keeps its tough stance against Saudi Arabia, arguing that Riyadh is responsible for causing a series of crises in the Middle East, by its recent interference in Lebanon’s affairs, boycotting Qatar since June, and waging a full-scale war against impoverished Yemen since March 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something we have just witnessed in the region: Bullying small countries into submission,\u201d he said, suggesting that\u00a0the Saudi aggression is a new threat in the region. \u201cExactly what happened to Qatar six months ago is happening now to Lebanon.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Back on November 4, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced his resignation in a televised address while he was in Saudi Arabia, saying that he was stepping down because of the security situation in Lebanon. He also said that he saw a plot being hatched against his life.<\/p>\n

Hariri also accused Iran and the Lebanese resistance movement, Hezbollah, of meddling in the Arab countries\u2019 affairs; an allegation the two have rejected.<\/p>\n

Top Lebanese officials and senior politicians close to Hariri say he was forced to quit, and is being held by Saudi authorities. Lebanese politicians from across the political spectrum have called for Hariri\u2019s return to Beirut, saying it is necessary to resolve the crisis.<\/p>\n

Lebanese President Michel Aoun has called Hariri a Saudi hostage and refused to accept his shock resignation unless he returns to Beirut.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/p>\n
PressTV-What\u2019s behind Paris invitation for Hariri?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The French president \u201cinvites\u201d Lebanese Premier Hariri and his family to France after his surprise resignation in Saudi Arabia.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThe leadership in Saudi and the UAE should understand that there is a world order that should be respected. International law should be respected,\u201d the Qatari foreign minister further said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no right for any country to interfere in other countries,\u201d Al Thani further argued, warning, \u201cThere is a pattern that is very risky for the region, and very intimidatory.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Qatar says Saudi Arabia has been sparking off crises across the Middle East and \u201cbullying small countries into submission,\u201d\u00a0some six months after Riyadh formed an alliance against Doha and imposed a tight blockade on the small Persian Gulf emirate. Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani made the remarks during a Friday press conference …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":11674,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-islamic-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11673"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11675,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11673\/revisions\/11675"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}