Senior Saudi official: No end for crisis unless Qatar changes its foreign policy

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal ruled out on Tuesday that the political impasse between Saudi Arabia and Qatar would end “as long as Qatar has not changed its foreign policy.”

This is the first official response from Riyadh on bilateral relations with Doha since the withdrawal of the Saudi, Emirati and Kuwaiti ambassadors from Qatar on 5 March. Al-Faisal also denied that any international mediation to end the crisis is currently underway.

Doha has insisted that the “independence of its foreign policy is a non-negotiable issue.”

Speaking to the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat, Al-Faisal ruled out that the dispute between the three countries and Qatar would undermine intentions to setup a union for the Gulf States.

In December 2011, the Saudi King called for changing the status of the Gulf Cooperation Council into a more coherent political union.

US President Barack Obama is planning to visit Saudi Arabia at the end of this month, but Al-Faisal stressed that there is no American plan to mediate the crisis with Qatar.

Al-Hayat also reported that a number of Saudi officials have cancelled meetings with their Qatari counterparts over the past two weeks, citing this as an indication of the deteriorating situation.

The three states that withdrew their ambassadors from Doha have blamed Qatar for not committing to the terms of an agreement among the Gulf States, signed by Qatari Emir Tamim bin-Hamas, stipulating that the states have to abstain from interfering in each other’s internal affairs.

In response to the diplomatic row Qatar has expressed its “regret and surprise” over the withdrawal of the ambassadors; however, the Qatari ministerial council pointed out that: “This step has nothing to do with the interests of the Gulf nations, including their security or stability, but is linked to issues outside the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council.”

Observers believe that the Qatari remarks refer to the diffirences in views regarding the military coup in Egypt against the freely elected Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsi.