JEDDAH: Amid international calls for dialogue to find a solution to the Qatari diplomatic crisis, Doha Monday expressed readiness to engage in talks positively.
“Qatar is willing to sit and negotiate about whatever is related to Gulf security,” Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani told reporters during a visit to Paris.
He called for “dialogue based on clear foundations” over accusations that Qatar supports extremist groups.
“Kuwait’s foreign minister is making efforts to mediate between our countries. We support this effort and our choice is resolve this through dialogue,” Sheikh Mohammed said after meeting his French counterpart.
Kuwait’s emir cautioned that the dispute could lead to “undesirable consequences,” in comments carried by state news agency KUNA.
“It is difficult for us, the generation that built the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) 37 years ago, to see these disagreements between its members, which may lead to undesirable consequences,” said Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.
“I personally lived through the first building blocks of this council nearly four decades ago, so it is not easy for someone like me as a leader to stand silent without doing everything I can to bring brothers back together.”
Oman welcomed a decision by Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain to give special consideration to families with Qatari spouses and children.
Oman said the hotlines to help the mixed families would aid “humanitarian cases of families shared between them and Qatar.”
In London, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said he would meet this week with his counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE, and called for calm.
“I have urged all sides to refrain from any further escalation and to engage in mediation efforts,” he said. He called on Qatar to take seriously its neighbors’ concerns and to do more to address the issue of Doha’s support to extremist groups.
Meanwhile, Eritrea has expressed support for Saudi Arabia and its allies after they cut ties with Qatar.
The Eritrean Information Ministry’s statement said the initiative by Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE “is not confined to Qatar alone as the potential of Qatar is very limited,” but is “one initiative among many in the right direction that envisages full realization of regional security and stability.”
— With input from AP, AFP,Reuters
Qatar ready for talks to end crisis
Qatar ready for talks to end crisis
Slain son of former Libya ruler Qaddafi to be buried near capital
- The burial will be held on Friday in the town of Bani Walid some 175 kilometers south of Tripoli, two of his brothers said
TRIPOLI: The slain son of former Libyan ruler Muammar Qaddafi will be buried in a town south of the capital that remains loyal to the family, relatives said Thursday.
Seif Al-Islam Qaddafi, once seen by some as Libya’s heir apparent, was shot dead on Tuesday in the northwestern city of Zintan.
The burial will be held on Friday in the town of Bani Walid some 175 kilometers south of Tripoli, two of his brothers said.
“The date and location of his burial have been decided by mutual agreement among the family,” half-brother Mohamed Qaddafi said in a Facebook post.
Mohamed said the plan reflected “our respect” for the town, which has remained loyal to the elder Qaddafi years after he was toppled and killed in the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings.
Each year, the town of about 100,000 celebrates the anniversary of a 1969 coup that brought Muammar to power, parading through the streets holding the ex-leader’s portrait.
Saadi Qaddafi, a younger brother, said his dead sibling will be “buried among the Werfalla,” an influential local tribe, in a grave next to his brother Khamis Qaddafi, who died during the 2011 unrest.
Marcel Ceccaldi, a French lawyer who had been representing Seif Al-Islam, told AFP he was killed by an unidentified “four-man commando” who stormed his house on Tuesday.
Seif Al-Islam had long been widely seen as his father’s heir. Under the elder Qaddafi’s iron-fisted 40-year rule, he was described as the de facto prime minister, cultivating an image of moderation and reform despite holding no official position.
But that reputation soon collapsed when he promised “rivers of blood” in retaliation for the 2011 uprising.
He was arrested that year on a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity, and a Tripoli court later sentenced him to death, although he was later granted amnesty.
In 2021 he announced he would run for president but the elections were indefinitely postponed.
He is survived by four out of six siblings: Mohamed, Saadi, Aicha and Hannibal, who was recently released from a Lebanese prison on bail.
Libya has struggled to recover from chaos that erupted after the 2011 uprising. It remains split between a UN-backed government based in Tripoli and an eastern administration backed by Khalifa Haftar.
