Three Gulf Arab states angry at Qatar over Egypt

A Gulf source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which all withdrew their ambassadors from Qatar on Wednesday, were in dispute with Doha over its position on the Egyptian coup.

The unnamed source explained that the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have failed to stabilise the situation in Egypt, despite providing billions of dollars to the regime, because the majority of the Egyptian people refuse the coup.

The source also revealed that Qatar had accepted the mechanism to implement an Agreement of Principles proposed by the State of Kuwait and delegated its foreign minister to the GCC ministry in Riyadh to discuss it. However, the foreign ministers were surprised that the Kuwaiti draft proposal was replaced with a Saudi Arabian proposal without consulting the other Gulf member states.

The source recounted that the Riyadh meeting thus ended without taking a definitive position. Moreover, the foreign ministers of Kuwait and Oman were scheduled to visit Doha on Wednesday but Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain’s decision to withdraw their ambassadors from Qatar interrupted the visit.

A Qatari source, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Qatar had accepted the goodwill proposals made by the Emir of the State of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, and welcomed his initiative to visit Saudi Arabia and meet with the Saudi King. “Qatar continued to cooperate with Kuwait during the foreign ministers’ mutual visits and the Qatari Prince visited Kuwait and met with the GCC foreign ministers,” noted the source.

The source affirmed that Qatar is refuting all allegations made by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in respect to Egypt and pointed out that they are based on media reports, mainly Egyptian media that are hostile to Qatar. Furthermore, the source added that Qatar is keen on maintaining good relations with all the Gulf member states and to realize the security, stability and welfare of their people.