UAE throws a divorce threat to Qatar if demands were not accepted

The UAE warned Qatar that it will have to face “divorce” from its Gulf neighbours unless it takes their demands seriously. The United Nations had offered to help resolve the regional crisis.

The list of demands includes the shut down of Al-Jazeera television, a long-standing source of conflict between Doha and neighbouring countries which accuse it of fomenting regional strife.

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 to accept the deal seriously 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.

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 and accused Qatar of sponsoring terrorism.

Qatar had strongly denied such charges.

The demands have not been officially unveiled but Doha-based Al-Jazeera news channel informed that they will be 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.

Al-Jazeera, one of the largest news organisations in the world, said that it “deplores” calls for it to be taken off the air.

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.