Don’t justify terrorism; Foreign Minister warns Qatar

Manama : In a terse statement, Bahrain’s Foreign Affairs Minister told Qatar to stop justifying terrorism as a right to ‘national sovereignty’.

In a statement on his official Twitter page, Foreign Affairs Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa on Thursday, said: “We respect the sovereignty of Qatar over its lands, people, borders and whatever concerns it and we don’t want to derogate it.”

“But we will not allow any attempt to interfere and support terrorism citing sovereignty-related matters.”

The tweet came a few hours after Qatar rejected a 13-point ultimatum presented to it by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt in return for an end to a nearly three-week-old diplomatic and trade “blockade” of the emirate.

Qatar, however, insisted that the move against it as an effort to limit its sovereignty and rejected the ultimatum as ‘unrealistic, calling the blockage illegal”.

Qatari Foreign Affairs Minister Shaikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, claimed that the demands are “attempts to interfere in the country’s foreign policy”.

The 13-point demand includes the closure of Al-Jazeera television and a call for Doha to cut ties to groups including the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic State organisation, Al-Qaeda and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.

Qatar has also been asked to hand over opposition figures wanted by the four countries, to downgrade diplomatic ties with Iran, and to shut a Turkish military base.