News / Persian Gulf

Qatar decries Saudi Arabia’s blocking its minister from attending emergency meeting on coronavirus

Thursday, 20 February 2020 11:50 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 20 February 2020 11:57 PM ]

Qatari Health Minister Hanan Mohamed al-Kuwari (file photo)

Qatar has censured Saudi Arabia over barring its health minister from a recent emergency meeting of Persian Gulf countries in the Saudi capital Riyadh to discuss the growing concerns over the coronavirus, and means to unify regional efforts to combat it.

“Qatar expresses its concern that the Saudi authorities did not grant (Health Minister) Hanan Mohamed al-Kuwari permission to enter Riyadh and attend a meeting on coronavirus preventive measures organized by the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council... until the meeting had actually started,” Qatar's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

The statement added, “Saudi Arabia has repeatedly claimed that the (P)GCC, especially the technical committees, have not been affected by the crisis. Yet we are surprised to see that (Riyadh) is politicizing a humanitarian sector.”

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Nine cases of coronavirus have been detected in the United Arab Emirates. Two suspected cases in Qatar were later found not to be the virus, whilst Saudi Arabia has not reported any confirmed instances.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut off diplomatic ties with Qatar on June 5, 2017, after officially accusing it of “sponsoring terrorism.”

Libya, the Maldives, Djibouti, Senegal and the Comoros later joined the camp in ending diplomatic ties with Doha. Jordan downgraded its diplomatic relations as well.

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Qatar

Qatar's Foreign Ministry later announced that the decision to cut diplomatic ties was unjustified and based on false claims and assumptions.

On June 9, 2017, Qatar strongly dismissed allegations of supporting terrorism after the Saudi regime and its allies blacklisted dozens of individuals and entities purportedly associated with Doha.

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Diplomatic sources say talks between Saudi Arabia and Qatar to resolve a bitter Persian Gulf dispute have broken down soon after starting.

Later that month, Saudi Arabia and its allies released a 13-point list of demands, including the closure of al-Jazeera television network and downgrade of relations with Iran, in return for the normalization of diplomatic relations with Doha.

The document also asked Qatar to sever all ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement.

Qatar rejected the demands as "unreasonable."

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