Tamim: Qatar ready for negotiations with Arab quartet

CAIRO - 15 September 2017: Qatar is ready to sit at the negotiating table to end a row with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and UAE, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani said on Friday in Berlin according to Reuters.

On Friday, Tamim visited Germany to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel and will then head to France to meet with President Emmanuel Macron.

“It’s cause for great concern that after 100 days a solution to this conflict is still not in sight,” Merkel said.

In his first foreign trip since the Gulf crisis, Qatar’s Tamim visited Turkey on Thursday and met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

But as the emir was in Ankara calling for dialogue, a Qatari exile held a conference in London that explored the possibility of a “bloodless coup” overthrowing the government in Doha. The conference was organized by Khalid al-Hail.

“We have a crisis, the government of Qatar has to admit it,” Hail said. “And I don’t believe the current regime in Qatar is acting for the good of my people.”

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain cut diplomatic and trade links with Qatar on June 5, accusing the major gas-exporting Gulf state of financing terrorism and cozying up to their arch-rival Iran. Doha denies the charges.