To remain one of us, close Al Jazeera TV, Arab states tell Qatar

The Arab States have counselled Qatar to shut down Al Jazeera Televison for good if it wants to remain a part of the influential Middle East body.

This is one of the 13-point agenda handed down to Qatar, which is currently facing diplomatic row with many countries, including its brother Arab states.

The Saudi Arabia-led alliance regards Al Jazeera, the most widely watched broadcaster in the Arab world, as a propaganda tool for Islamists, which they believe also undermines support for their governments.

The coalition warns that Qatar’s emir “must realise that the solution to his crisis is not with Tehran, Beirut or Ankara, or Western capitals and the media, but [a solution] is through the return of confidence in him by his neighbours,” UAE’s minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, wrote on Twitter.

Obviously, the demands were expected to be a private discussion between Qatar and the Arab states, but having made it public, the states rebuked Qatar for “leaking the demands and concerns of its neighbours” to the press and the western world.

Kuwait has handed Qatar a list of demands by the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt, the Qatari broadcaster, Al Jazeera, reported earlier Friday.

Kuwait said the list has not been sanctioned by either Qatar or Kuwait, which has been trying to mediate between the two sides.

Gargash argued that the “crisis is real” and is being ignited by the “confused” administration of Qatari Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

“Sometimes, divorce is better,” Gargash wrote.

The Qatari emir’s role in providing “funding, a media and political platform” to serve “the agenda of extremism cannot be accepted,” he said.

Al-Jazeera Media Network is owned and funded by the Qatari royal family.

The network, especially the Arabic-language channel, has repeatedly angered Arab leaders since its establishment in 1996, shaking up a broadcasting world until then dominated by government mouthpieces.

One of the biggest disputes was in 2002, when Saudi Arabia withdrew its ambassador to Doha to protest at Al Jazeera’s “negative” coverage of Saudi politics.

In recent years, critics have argued that it is strongly supportive of Islamists, especially Egypt’s now-banned Muslim Brotherhood.

On June 5, the four countries severed diplomatic ties and transportation links with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorism.

Doha has repeatedly denied the accusations. The four countries have not made their demands public yet.

Later in June, several African countries cut relations with Qatar and others downgraded ties.

On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged the Arab countries involved in a diplomatic spat with Qatar to present their demands.

“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.

“Our desire is for unity within the Gulf,” he added.

Several Qataris who spoke to Reuters described the demands as unreasonable. “Imagine another country demanding that CNN be closed,” said 40-year-old Haseeb Mansour, who works for telecom operator Ooredoo. (Reuters/dpa/NAN)

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