Shaikh Khalid slams Qatari counterpart

Manama : Bahrain Foreign Affairs Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa has slammed his Qatari Counterpart Shaikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani for his remarks on the “three principles”, a reference to the agreement signed by GCC leaders in 2013 and 2014.

During a press conference that followed his meeting with the Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano in Doha on Wednesday, the Qatari minister had said that the solution to the current GCC diplomatic crisis is by following the “three principles” that essentially revolve around mutual respect of sovereignty. Shaikh Mohammed said that Qatar is ready to resolve the crisis based on “three principles”, namely, the “non-violation of the sovereignty of any state”, the agreement over “mutual obligations rather than orders”, in addition to reaching a “solution in accordance with international law”.

Shaikh Khalid criticised the Qatari minister’s statements on his official page on Twitter. The Bahraini minister tweeted, “The three principles demanded by the Qatari Foreign Minister during a press conference held in Doha are the same principles mentioned in the Riyadh Agreement, which Qatar did not commit to.”

Shaikh Khalid’s tweet referred to the agreements signed by the leaders of GCC countries in Riyadh in 2013 and 2014. The agreements stipulated barring the support for opposition and hostile groups in GCC countries, as well as in Egypt and Yemen.

However, it was proven that the Qatari government had breached the agreements by meddling in the internal affairs of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Yemen through various channels that included the media, social media, financial support to hostile militias and intelligence. This has resulted in the ongoing diplomatic crisis, which has been described as “the worst to ever occur in the GCC”.