Arab countries to hold meeting in Cairo to discuss Qatar

CAIRO – 5 July 2017: The four Arab countries leading efforts to combat terrorism funded by Qatar will hold a meeting in Cairo on Wednesday to decide future steps regarding the Gulf nation, which insists on maintaining its support to extremist entities across the Middle East.

The meeting, which is set to start at 1 p.m. Cairo local time, will be attended by the foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

The meeting comes after Saudi Arabia announced that the four countries have received Qatar’s official response to their collective demands in order to restore relations.

On Wednesday morning, the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir received the Qatari response to the Arab countries’ demands from Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed Al-Salem Al-Sabah, acting as an intermediary between the states.

The Arab countries set forth 13 demands to Qatar to restore relations, which included reducing its ties with Iran, shutting down the Al Jazeera TV channel and closing a Turkish military base in Qatar.

The deadline to respond to the demands was set to end last Monday, but was extended by 48 hours at the request of the Kuwait’s Emir, Sheikh Sabah Al-Sabah.

On June 5, a number of Arab countries, led by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, cut diplomatic ties with Qatar and imposed economic sanctions on Doha, accusing it of supporting and funding terrorism across the Middle East region.