United Arab Emirates ambassador says: ‘We have reached the end of the line in discussing with Qataris how things can get better’

The Gulf states have lost all trust in Qatar and have reached the end of the line in discussing how things can get better, one of the leading diplomats from the United Arab Emirates has said.

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The UAE, along with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt, is mounting an unprecedented diplomatic and economic blockade against Qatar, alleging ties to terrorism. Qatar has dismissed the charge as cover for an attempt to rein in its independent foreign policy and economy.

Omar Saif Ghobas, the United Arab Emirates’ ambassador to Russia, said a verification system would have to be put in place to ensure Qatar stuck to any future deal not to nurture or fund terror.

“There is no trust, it has gone,” Ghobas said. “So when the Qatari foreign minister says ‘listen, we need to engage in dialogue’, we have done that for many years – that’s just a statement for western consumption.”

Ghobas, one of the most eloquent exponents of UAE thinking, insisted the new anti-Qatar alliance was not planning a military invasion or externally enforced regime change. Instead, he said Qatar had a history of internal regime change, implying the UAE would welcome the removal of the emir.

“I have heard rumours and a couple of articles suggesting military invasion, but Qatar has a fine history of regime change on its own. It is up to the Qatari people and the royal family to decide if that is the right approach or not. We are not looking at military options at all. It is Turkey that is militarising the position.”

The Turkish parliament this week cleared a bill giving the go-ahead for pre-existing plans for its troops to go to a new base in Qatar.

“We believe we have reached the end of the line in discussing with Qataris how things can get better,” Ghobas said. “They have known for a very long time we have issues with the funding of extremists.”

The UAE and Saudis, seen as the driving force behind the push for a change in Qatar’s foreign policy, claim they were let down in 2014 when, after a previous démarche, Qatar allegedly reneged on a commitment to rein its support for political Islam.

Asked if Qatar could say anything to reassure its Gulf opponents, Ghobas replied: “It is true it will be difficult in the long run if they agree to sign another document and then decide to drag it out for many months or years and to continue to fund extremist groups. This will require a tremendous verification system.

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“Qatar’s policy is a dead end and it will only lead to destruction, so essentially what we are asking is for the Qataris to give up on their foreign policy which calls up for an an alliance between a tremendous amount of wealth and extremely radical Islam.”

Speaking to reporters in the capital, Doha, on Thursday, Qatar’s foreign minister said the move by its fellow Arab states to isolate it was endangering stability in the oil-rich Gulf region.

“We are not ready to surrender, and will never be ready to surrender, the independence of our foreign policy,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said. “We have been isolated because we are successful and progressive. We are a platform for peace not terrorism ... This dispute is threatening the stability of the entire region.”

Qatar insists it does not fund extremism and says the presence of leading figures from Hamas or the Muslim Brotherhood in Doha is in part an effort to increase mediation efforts and try to achieve peace in the Middle East. It questions whether other more traditional Gulf monarchies are interested in Middle East peace and points to the hypocrisy of Saudi Arabia, given widespread accusations that it too is a funding source for Islamist jihadis.

Ghobas claimed that Qatar’s rulers were not motivated by ideological reasons: “They are not devout Muslims promoting a version of Islam. They are taking a bet. They are being very opportunistic; they are making a bet that political Islam will allow them to be the paymaster of the Arab world and they can reap economic benefit.”

Many observers say the evidence of direct funding by the Qatari government to extremist groups is thin and that the dispute really turns on the future governance of the Middle East, including the threat that political Islam might pose to authoritarian regimes.

Ghobas said: “The idea that there is an Islamic solution to Middle East’s social and economic problems is not something we are persuaded of.”