Qatar rejects demands, not afraid of retaliation

Doha: Defiant Qatar has said it does not fear any military retaliation for refusing to meet a Monday deadline to comply with a list of demands from four Arab states that have imposed a de-facto blockade on the Gulf nation.

Qatar’s foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said that the 13 demands from Saudi Arabia and several of its allies were designed to be spurned.

“The list of demands is made to be rejected,” Sheikh Mohammed said.
“Everyone is aware that these demands are meant to infringe the sovereignty of the state of Qatar,” he said at a news conference in Rome after meeting his Italian counterpart. “The state of Qatar... is rejecting it as a principle,” he said.

“We are willing to engage in providing the proper conditions for further dialogue.”
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt announced on June 5 they were severing ties with their Gulf neighbour, sparking the worst diplomatic crisis to hit the region in decades.

They accused Doha of supporting extremism and of being too close to regional archrival Iran, which Qatar has strongly denied.

“There is no fear from whatever action would be taken; Qatar is prepared to face whatever consequences,” the Qatari foreign minister said in Rome, adding “there is an international law that should not be violated and there is a border that should not be crossed.”

“We believe the world is governed by international laws, that don’t allow big countries to bully small countries,”