JEDDAH: A member of the Qatari royal family has urged the people of Qatar to be “the messengers of peace” in the dispute with its Gulf neighbors.
“To my family, the children, the businessmen, and all the people of Qatar. I invite you to meet to be messengers of wisdom and peace, and advocates for the uniting of the hearts,” Sheikh Abdullah bin Ali Al-Thani said on Sunday.
Sheikh Abdullah said he felt pain at seeing the dispute going from bad to worse, and called for a meeting at Qatari national level to discuss a crisis “which we can no longer remain silent in.”
The dispute began in June, when the Anti-Terror Quartet comprising Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic relations and imposed a trade and travel boycott over Qatar’s financing of terrorist groups and interference in its neighbors’ internal affairs.
Sheikh Abdullah said the situation was deteriorating, and “pushing us to a fate we do not want to reach.”
He said King Salman of Saudi Arabia was committed to the safety of Qatar and its people. Sheikh Abdullah called on the people of Qatar to communicate with him and set a date for a national meeting.
Qatari sheikh calls for national meeting to end crisis
Qatari sheikh calls for national meeting to end crisis
Trump offers to mediate Egypt-Ethiopia dispute on Nile River waters
- Egypt says the dam violates international treaties and could cause both droughts and flooding, a claim Ethiopia rejects
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump offered on Friday to mediate a dispute over Nile River waters between Egypt and Ethiopia. “I am ready to restart US mediation between Egypt and Ethiopia to responsibly resolve the question of ‘The Nile Water Sharing’ once and for all,” he wrote to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in a letter that also was posted on Trump’s Truth Social account.
Addis Ababa’s September 9 inauguration of its Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has been a source of anger in Cairo, which is downstream on the Nile.
Ethiopia, the continent’s second-most populous nation with more than 120 million people, sees the $5 billion dam on a tributary of the Nile as central to its economic ambitions.
Egypt says the dam violates international treaties and could cause both droughts and flooding, a claim Ethiopia rejects.
Trump has praised El-Sisi in the past, including during an October trip to Egypt to sign a deal related to the Gaza conflict. In public comments, Trump has echoed Cairo’s concerns about the water issue.
