Quartet to restore ties when Doha stops funding terrorism: Jubeir

CAIRO – 20 February 2018: Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al Jubeir said on Monday that Qatar is insisting on backing terrorism, adding,” the state of Qatar has spread hatred in various countries.”

“If Qatar stops funding terrorism, the Arab quartet will definitely be ready to restore normal ties with it,” said Jubeir in Vienna on the sidelines of a meeting with the Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl.

Jubeir and Kneissl discussed the bilateral ties between Riyadh and Vienna and the recent global developments, affirming that Saudi Arabia has exerted its best efforts to achieve progress in Yemen.

“Riyadh and Abu Dhabi announced a full-scale human plan to be achieved in Yemen…All Yemeni ports will open as soon as possible,” Jubeir manifested.


Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir and his Austrian counterpart Karin Kneissl in Vienna on February 19, 2018- AFP
He pointed out that Yemen, as a neighboring country, is important to Riyadh and “enhancing its situation” is a regional priority.

Jubeir accused the Houthi militias of being the reason behind the inhumane conditions that many Yemeni villages and provinces have witnessed, stressing his condemnation for the forced recruitment of young Yemenis by the Houthi militias.

In June 2017, four Arab countries cut diplomatic ties with the state of Qatar on charges of supporting extremism and funding terrorism. For its part, Doha denied the charges.

Although Kuwait has played the role of mediator in the Arab Quartet-Qatar fallout, Tarek Fahmi, professor of political science in Cairo University, said that Kuwait and the countries of the world stopped mediating.

"The Middle East countries should put their differences aside and forge a security pact similar to that of the EU," said Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad on Friday during a security conference in Munich.

On January 25, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al-Thani said that Doha aims to improve relations with Cairo.

Thani said, during the four-day World Economic Forum (WEF) 2018, that Qatar supports Egypt’s stability. “Those who said that Qatar is trying to destabilize Egypt are making false allegations,” Thani said, despite several cases revealed by the Egyptian security authorities that prove Qatar's involvement in providing financial support to terrorist groups in Egypt.

Regretting the currently severed relations between Egypt and Qatar, Thani said that Qatar usually hopes to “bridge the gap” with Egypt, RT reported.

During his speech at the Nixon Center in Washington in November 2017, Thani said that Egypt’s stability and security is an integral part of Qatar's interest, denying the Qatari regime's responsibility for cutting relations with Egypt, Sputnik reported.