{"id":334058,"date":"2017-07-05T06:45:50","date_gmt":"2017-07-05T06:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=334058"},"modified":"2017-07-05T06:45:50","modified_gmt":"2017-07-05T06:45:50","slug":"qatar-crisis-saudi-arabia-and-allies-to-meet-in-cairo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/07\/qatar-crisis-saudi-arabia-and-allies-to-meet-in-cairo\/","title":{"rendered":"Qatar crisis: Saudi Arabia and allies to meet in Cairo"},"content":{"rendered":"
Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are to discuss the Qatar crisis, a month after they severed ties with the Gulf state.<\/p>\n
The meeting of foreign ministers in Cairo comes on the day a deadline expires for Qatar to accept a list of demands or face further sanctions.<\/p>\n
The demands to Qatar including shutting down the Al Jazeera channel and scaling down ties with Iran.<\/p>\n
Qatar has called the list of demands “unrealistic and not actionable”.<\/p>\n
Qatar is accused of destabilising the region by supporting extremism and terrorism – which it denies.<\/p>\n
The tiny gulf emirate has been under unprecedented diplomatic and economic sanctions from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain.<\/p>\n
The restrictions have caused turmoil in the oil- and gas-rich nation, which is dependent on imports to meet the basic needs of its population of 2.7 million.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies gave Qatar an extra two days to accept their ultimatum for restoring relations, after an earlier 10-day deadline expired.<\/p>\n
The authorities in Doha have responded to the demands – but no details have been publicly released. Qatar has said the demands break international law.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman al-Thani described the demands as unrealistic.<\/p>\n
“It’s not about terrorism, it’s talking about shutting down the freedom of speech,” he said.<\/p>\n
The four countries accuse Doha of harbouring Islamist groups that they consider terrorist organisations – including the Muslim Brotherhood – and giving them a platform on the Al Jazeera satellite channel, which is funded by the Qatari state.<\/p>\n
Qatar denies the accusations.<\/p>\n