Tabnak – A narrow window of hope to end the Persian Gulf diplomatic crisis, opened by a phone call between high-ranking Saudi and Qatari officials, was closed very soon today, after the Saudis accused Doha of distorting the facts.
According to a BBC report, Saudi Arabia says it has suspended dialogue with Qatar, shortly after a phone call between the Qatari leader and the Saudi crown prince. The two sides had discussed holding talks to resolve the Qatar crisis, which has seen Doha cut off from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the UAE.
On Friday, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani called Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, expressing his willingness to hold dialogue over the demands of the four Arab states from Doha. During the phone conversation, both leaders stressed the need to resolve the crisis through dialogue.
Qatar News Agency’s (QNA) reported that during the phone call both sides "stressed the need to resolve the crisis by sitting down to the dialogue table to ensure the unity and stability” of GCC countries.
Sheikh Tamim welcomed the proposal of Prince Mohammed during the call "to assign two envoys to resolve controversial issues in a way that does not affect the sovereignty of the states," the Qatari news agency added.
However, Saudi Arabia later issued a statement citing an unnamed official at the ministry of the foreign affairs denying the QNA report. "What was published on the Qatar News Agency is a continuation of the distortion of the Qatari authority of the facts,” SPA reported citing the Saudi official.
The row appears to be over protocol - observers say Saudi Arabia is angered that Qatari state media did not make clear that the call was initiated by Doha. However, the call was the first formal contact between Riyadh and Doha since the crisis began.
Bloomberg believes that the fresh dispute underscores the depth of the crisis that broke out in June when Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic and transport links with Qatar, an unprecedented move in the history of the six-nation GCC.
The Saudi-led bloc accuses Qatar of backing terrorism and has presented Sheikh Tamim with 13 demands that include shutting down Aljazeera television and scaling back ties with Iran. Qatar denies the charges and says the boycott is an attempt to undermine its sovereignty.
On the other hand, experts have touted the Qatar crisis as the fallout of Trump’s visit to Riyadh in early June, when he signed the largest single arms deal in US history with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to sell Riyadh $110 billion in arms.
It should be noted that Trump on Thursday said he would be willing to step in and mediate the worst dispute in decades among the US-allied Arab states and Qatar, and said he thinks a deal could come quickly. However, it seems that the crisis has gone even out of US control and Washington is unable to initiate a rapprochement between its Persian Gulf allies.
