Persian Gulf rivals converge on Washington to argue their cases
Players on all sides of the Persian Gulf diplomatic crisis were in Washington on Tuesday, making their cases to a divided administration that has been unable to stop the turmoil in the strategic region.
Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani met with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson just days after his government dismissed a list of demands from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt as an illegal attempt to limit Qatar’s sovereignty and control its foreign policy.
As Thani and Tillerson conferred behind closed doors at the State Department, Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told reporters at his country’s embassy here that the demands were nonnegotiable.
“We’ve made our point. We’ve taken our positions,” and the Qataris know “what they have to do,” said Jubeir, whose government has led the others in breaking relations with Qatar and limiting the isolated Persian Gulf peninsula’s air, land and sea access lanes.
Later in the day, Tillerson was scheduled to meet with Kuwaiti Minister of State Mohammad Abdullah al-Sabah. Kuwait is trying to mediate the dispute between the fellow members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, or GCC, a loose confederation of six gulf states.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/persian-gulf-rival-converge-on-washington-to-argue-their-cases/2017/06/27/781876f6-5b68-11e7-a9f6-7c3296387341_story.html
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