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Qatar was ‘obliged’ to join Saudi coalition in Yemen

July 19, 2017 at 12:51 pm

Qatar’s Defence Minister Khalid Bin Mohammad Al-Attiyah said Qatar felt “obligated” to join the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, in an exclusive interview with Turkish TRT World.

“We find ourselves obliged to join the coalition. And we’ve never been inside Yemen by the way; we’ve been defending the border of Saudi … But after the recent aggression on Qatar, they asked us to leave the border of Saudi Arabia, which we did, and all our soldiers are back,” Al-Attiyah said.

Read: Sudan agrees to represent Yemen’s interests in Qatar

The Qatari Minister went on to say that Doha has its own vision to resolving the situation in Yemen which includes “dialogue and development as the shortest way … When people find hope, they will forget extremism.”

#QatarGate

Saudi Arabia expelled Qatar from the coalition it leads in Yemen to reinstate President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and push back military advances from the Houthi group following a Gulf rift in June. Saudi Arabia alongside the United Arab Emirates and other countries accused Qatar of supporting extremism and terrorism. Qatar categorically denied the allegations as baseless.