MOSCOW, June 24. /TASS/. The conflict between some Arab countries and Qatar should be settled by diplomatic means on the basis of a balance of interests, a high-ranking source at the Russian Foreign Ministry told TASS on Saturday.
"Our position is the conflict between the Arab countries and Doha should be settled diplomatically respecting concerns and on the basis of a balance of interests," the source said. "We are for them to settle between themselves all the problems."
Certain Arab countries presented Doha with 13 conditions to be observed in order to restore the damaged relations. Among them are - lowering diplomatic relations with Iran, closing down the Al-Jazeera TV channel, stopping military cooperation with Turkey and closing Turkey’s military base in the country. In addition, Qatar would have to pay out some compensation to the demanding countries, and finally all the terms should be carried out within ten days. Qatar received this list of conditions from Kuwait.
As a measure to reduce the terrorist threat, Qatar is expected to halt the naturalization of citizens from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrein and Egypt, as well as to extradite all criminals, those countries are pursuing.
On June 5, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Yemen, Libya’s transitional government, the Republic of Maldives and the Republic of Mauritius severed diplomatic ties with Doha in retaliation for what they described as Qatar’s support for terrorism and extremism, its hostile policy and intervention in the affairs of Arab states. Mauritania and the Comoro Islands joined in later on. In addition, Jordan and Djibouti downgraded the statuses of their diplomatic missions. Doha considers these actions unjustified asserting that the accusations against it are groundless.