RIYADH, Dec 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Saudi Arabia is pushing for a compromise to end a damaging three-year Gulf dispute, but a full resolution remains out of reach despite its offer of concessions, sources close to the negotiations say.
Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan said last week that the
kingdom and its allies Bahrain, Egypt and the UAE — who imposed a blockade on Qatar in June 2017 — were “on board” to resolve the crisis, with an agreement expected soon.
The potential thaw comes as Gulf states position themselves for the
inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, who will welcome the resolution of a row which has undercut US efforts to rein in arch-enemy Iran.
The blockading countries accused Doha of being too close to Tehran and
funding radical Islamist movements — charges it staunchly denies.
They originally presented Qatar with a list of 13 demands including
shutting down Al Jazeera, a popular regional broadcaster which has rankled Gulf rulers with its high-decibel criticism, and downgrading links with their rivals Turkey and Iran.
Doha flatly turned them down. And after a bitter standoff, the Saudi-led
bloc is willing to substantially water down their demands in the final deal,
sources familiar with the negotiations say.
A figure close to the Saudi government indicated the kingdom was ready to
make concessions by reopening its airspace to Qatari aircraft — saving them from fuel-guzzling detours — if Doha stops funding its political opponents and restrains its media.
“Saudi is pushing (for) it — and Saudi holds the key card which is its
airspace for Qatar,” the source said.
The impasse snapped transport links, separated families, and cost billions
of dollars in lost trade and investment, damage which the Gulf economies can ill afford as they try to power out of the coronavirus slump.
On Tuesday, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates officially threw their
support behind efforts to heal the rift.
The final deal will likely be a joint document setting out the terms, they
said, possibly a reformatted version of the 2014 Riyadh agreement between
Qatar and Gulf states — a secret pact believed to promote non-interference
in each other’s affairs.
Doha-based diplomats cited a senior Qatari official as saying that the
final deal had been “agreed in principle” but was “limited in scope”.
The official, they said, suggested Saudi Arabia was unwilling to announce
the deal before the end of Trump’s term, possibly to strike a positive tone
with Biden who has pledged a tough stance towards Riyadh over its human
rights failings.
The US is keen to lift the air embargo which has prompted Qatar to use
Iran’s airspace, contributing to the approximately $133 million that Iranian
media says Tehran receives annually for overflights, undermining US efforts to squeeze it economically.
The Saudi-led blockade was designed to choke Qatar and force it to align
with Gulf interests, but it only propelled a self-sufficiency drive, and
pushed the deep-pocketed emirate closer to Iran and Turkey, observers say.
In an embarrassment for Riyadh in July, a UN court ruled in favour of Qatar
over the airspace dispute. — NNN-AGENCIES
