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THE UNITED ARAB Emirates warned Qatar Friday that it faces “divorce” from its Gulf neighbours unless it takes their demands seriously, as the United Nations offered to help resolve the regional diplomatic crisis.
The list of demands includes the closure of Al-Jazeera television, a long-standing source of conflict between Doha and neighbouring countries which accuse it of fomenting regional strife.
The Qatar-based broadcaster denounced the move as an attack on media freedom.
Anwar Gargash, the UAE’s state minister for foreign affairs, issued the warning more than two weeks into the oil-rich region’s worst diplomatic crisis in years.
“It would be wiser that (Qatar) deal seriously with the demands and concerns of the neighbours or a divorce will take place,” he wrote on Twitter.
The demands confirm that “the crisis is profound,” Gargash added.
The affair has also drawn in the United States, whose Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has called for Gulf unity.
UN spokeswoman Eri Kaneko said the world body continued “to follow the situation with deep concern”.
“We hope that the countries involved resolve the situation through dialogue,” she said.
We are ready to assist if requested by the parties.
Qatar is the world’s leading exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and hosts the biggest American airbase in the Middle East.
Gargash accused Qatar of leaking a document containing the demands by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt, which have cut diplomatic ties and accused Qatar of sponsoring terrorism.
Qatar strongly denies such charges.
‘Attempt to silence’
The demands have not been officially unveiled but Doha-based Al-Jazeera news channel said overnight Thursday they were handed to Qatar by Kuwait, which is mediating the dispute.
According to the document posted on social media, the four countries demand that Qatar closes Al-Jazeera, downgrades diplomatic ties with Iran and shuts a Turkish military base in the emirate.
Al-Jazeera, one of the largest news organisations in the world, said that it “deplores” calls for it to be taken off air.
“We in the network believe that any call for closing down Al-Jazeera is nothing but an attempt to silence the freedom of expression in the region and to suppress people’s right to information,” the broadcaster said in a statement.
Al-Jazeera English’s managing director, Giles Trendle, said it was like “Germany demanding Britain to close down the BBC”, in a video posted on social media.
Qatar is a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council with Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
On 5 June, Saudi Arabia and the UAE led a severing of all links with Qatar for allegedly supporting groups, including some backed by Iran, “that aim to destabilise the region”.
Other allies, including Egypt and Bahrain, followed. Saudi Arabia regularly accuses Iran, its regional rival, of interference throughout the Middle East.
US ‘mystified’
As well as cutting diplomatic ties, Qatar’s neighbours closed their air space to Qatari carriers and blocked the emirate’s only land border, vital for its food imports.
The list of 13 demands circulating on social media also says Qatar must cut ties to groups including the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic State organisation, Al-Qaeda and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.
Qatar is also required to hand over opposition figures wanted by its three neighbours and Egypt.
In addition to Al-Jazeera, it must shut online information sites that it supports, according to the reported demands.
Although there has yet to be an official reaction to the list from the Doha government, Qatar’s Human Rights Committee said the demands represented “gross violations” of basic rights.
In Qatar, the hashtag “the list is rejected” trended in Arabic on social media.
Gargash though urged Qatar to cede to the demands:
“The brother (Qatar) must realise that the solution for its crisis lies not in Tehran or Beirut or Ankara or Western capitals or in media outlets, but in regaining the trust of its neighbours,” he said.
Tillerson said on Wednesday that Washington had been pushing for a clear list of grievances that are “reasonable and actionable”.
“Our role has been to encourage the parties to get their issues on the table, clearly articulated, so that those issues can be addressed and some resolution process can get underway to bring this to a conclusion,” he said.
His spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Tuesday the United States was “mystified” that Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies had failed to present details justifying their embargo on Qatar.
US President Donald Trump, however, has made statements siding with Saudi Arabia in the crisis.
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The Journal gets large grants and subsidies from the EU and it’s subsidiaries. So it’s journalists get prizes from the institute that pays their wages.
No need for a “debunking Fact Check” on this
@Denis Slattery: Yes: no need for debunking of something that you simply made up.
@Denis Slattery: whoa there, a deep & groundbreaking investigation into missing child migrants & this ridiculous petty ‘what aboutery’ is your input????
@Denis Slattery: Now you know two wallys that work for the journal
@Pewpew Tin: You’re one sad little virgin. You are lucky your oul one lets you squat in her box room.
@Pewpew Tin: necro creep, Saville would be proud of you. Your parents aren’t
@Pewpew Tin: Had dinner with my family, listen that empty hole in your life can’t be filled with food. Sad lonely little virgin strung out for attention he never got :)
@Pewpew Tin: oooh sick burn virgin haha
@Pewpew Tin: Im actually chuffed, I haven’t been spanked by a virgin in years
@Denis Slattery: And the source for your allegation ‘large grants’ is…?
Would some of these actually be adults that came in whilst posing as children
@Thomas Sheridan: maybe, some, but that’s the usual daily mail type reaction that misses the broader point
@Thomas Sheridan: Saw a post about a 16 year old missing migrant last week with advanced male pattern baldness. Are these lads actually around minors? Is there anyone with working eyeballs in Tusla?
They don’t care, they literally do not care, more migration bigger GDP, bigger population bigger GDP, less wealth to spread around, we all get poorer as the economy gets slightly bigger through consumption.
How many Irish children go missing every year? How many awards? Oh, right, I forgot, nobody cares!
Well done and congratulations to The Journal Investigates. Hopefully their colleagues, The Journal moderators, can do equally excellent work to clear up the multi account spammers who infect this comment section on a constant, daily basis
@Kevin Kerr: here here!!!! Funny thing is I don’t actually mind your stalking but I do get that some would be intimidated 0 fearful of your behaviour
@Kevvy kerrr: fck off
@Kevin Kerr: hi stalker, deep meaningful polite rhetoric as always!!! Right back at ya!!!! Genuine question — why you pick me????
@Kevin Kerr: Yeah be deffo good to see the back of all Stephen Kearons multiple accounts like Pat_Hazzard, noel_lee etc and the likes of the honeybadger and that hoo woo thing..all the crazy trump and kamalla bots .. and the far righ bots including the Israelis, the far left bots
@Kevin Kerr: appreciate you’re only trolling … but keep it civil, no need to go in the gutter
Missing children immigrants is one thing but when some 39 year old illegal immigrant who has destroyed their passport on a cheap flight from say Afghanistan, Nigeria or Algeria identifies as a 14 year old, well that’s another story, just not by the Journal.
Excellent work journal news hounds! You guys are the best
@Buster Lawless: yes 100%, no stone left unturned!!!!
@J B: more like an IRA nutting squad they are that ruthless.
Comments open
@Jb Walshe: It would appear so. Well spotted.
@Stephen Heffernan: perhaps they should recruit ‘jb walshe’ onto the investigative team, like a poiroit crossed with morse he is
@Jb Walshe: Nothing gets past you JB. I wonder will you be nominated for an award for that ground breaking piece of analysis.
They both folded their arms for the photo so they must be serious journalists. Congratulations on your reward, it must feel like getting a pat on the head from daddy when you used the potty for the first time, going by the pictures it wasn’t all that long ago.
Kudos! Great to see some real journalism happening, having an impact and being acknowledged.
Surely there’s some kind of accolade -award for this outstanding ( & dangerous) investigative journalism?. Then again, I’ve no doubt Patricia & Maria are in this for back slapping, well done guys, outstanding work
@Kevvy kerrr: they deserve the Roger Cook award. He was fearless.
@Kevvy kerrr: “ARE’NT” ,, bloody predictive text
@Buster Lawless: well, nobody could possibly argue with that!!!!
@Frank Mc Carthy: An entire comment thread, talking to yourself. Wow.
@FlipBip: I’ve been looking for ages for the journal.ie to carry out an investigation AND CULL of all the looners on here, even got my v own private stalker but as yet, nothing
@Frank Mc Carthy: Cool story.
@Frank Mc Carthy: once again. You should reply using the same account you posted the original on Frank / Kevvy / (I am suspecting) Buster. Now that was a massive faux pas, correcting the content of the message which was incorrectly written due to predictive text, FROM THE WRONG ACCOUNT!! Now I already knew you and Kevvy were the same person from a few days back when both accounts misspelled Kamala as Kamila in the space of a few mins of each other on separate threads. But I have a serious question to ask, would you mind answering? Have you got any form of life? How pathetic is it that you feel the need to have multiple journal accounts? You’re an embarrassing sad case tbf.
@Eoin Jackson: pewpewtim is one of theirs too and possibly freedapeople too imo.
@Eoin Jackson: what is this all about?
@Chutes: ….. and most likely Larry Betts, imo.
@Buster Lawless: methinks the multi account trolls are amalgating?????
@Chutes: what happened to ‘d paedo’ & ‘ offside again ‘….. Weren’t they under ye’re umbrella????
@Kevvy kerrr: yes I’m a multi troll account Kevvy / Frank, just been dormant for nearly 12 years, you absolute twit.
@Kevvy kerrr: Stop projecting. Stop imitating other people’s accounts. Stop being such a child!
The journal is not exactly a balanced view, everyone needs to be aware of this when reading their biased mediocre articles!
My comments have been removed twice from this article . Why ?
Congratulations to all involved. It’s not easy operating in the current environment. Respect for effort and diligence is now dismissed with nothing more than a bunch of Trumpian sound bites and clichés. If someone doesn’t like the facts, it’s the usual ‘fake news’ or MSM conspiracy. Zero engagement with the actual information and indeed reality.
They recently had a deep dive into the social media posts that provoked the riots in England during the summer. Incredibly or perhaps unsurprisingly, two thirds were from places thousands of miles away. It would be really interesting to find out how many of the posts here are from Irish people or accounts. Is this something Journal Investigates could do?
We all know there’s a huge volume of posts from abroad seeking to normalise extreme views and pull people further away from moderate and empathetic approaches to people and life. This drip feed is intended to make dangerous and inhumane policies appear normal and acceptable. We know from history and the current climate that this works. Maybe a breakdown of the exact numbers will help some people to realise that so many of these posts are not Irish and are simply there to pull us further away from a baseline of decency.
Always remember that these kind of comment sections are infested with bad actors from groups with the sole aim of stirring unrest and hate to further their political aims. There’s still a lot of decency in most Irish people. Let’s not be duped into believing everyone is now a frothing, hateful Trump supporter who sees nothing wrong with Putin, and couldn’t care less about injustice and suffering elsewhere.,
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