Reduce ties to Iran, a regional advisory of the four countries making the demands
“Qatar must also announce it is severing ties with terrorist, ideological and sectarian organizations including the Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic State, al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Jabhat Fateh al Sham, formerly al Qaeda’s branch in Syria” according to one Arab official
Surrender all designated terrorists in Qatar
Qatar stop interfering in the four countries’ domestic and foreign affairs
stop a practice of giving Qatari nationality to citizens of the four countries
Payment of reparations for years of alleged wrongs
In case you don’t know, Qatar started Al-Jazeera. Qatar has aligned itself with Iran in some ways. There was the matter of them purportedly paying $1b in ransom to Iranian terrorists for a royal who was kidnapped while out falconning (can’t make this sh!t up), which Saudi doesn’t like since its a) Iran and b) they are recently really trying to set a strong stance on terrorism (glowing orb, anyone?). Actually, I think most of the food in Qatar comes from Iran now with the embargo, so ironically the Saudi embargo has driven Qatar into further relations with Iran.
Qatar obviously cannot submit to these demands, since the list basically forces them to sever ties with Iran, a more important economic partner than Saudi Arabia. So, I’m not sure what response Saudi Arabia is looking for. Millennials, they just want everything, amiright?
The Saudis know they won’t accept any of these terms. This is just a precursor (and show to the international community) to further their aggressive stance or take some sort of financial/political/possibly military action. The question is really what are the Saudi’s really after, because lets be honest, it’s not stamping out terrorism.
I like Al Jazeera English a lot. My Arabic speaking friends give me the impression that Al Jazeera (non-English?) is not the same based on what they talk about on the channel. So maybe it is a good demand? But I don’t want to loose my English version
