Tuesday, Jun 20, 2017

Dubai: The Riyadh Agreement signed by six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries in 2014 is a good basis for resolving the dispute that erupted within the alliance, Russia’s Foreign Affairs Committee in the State Duma Leonid Slutsky has said.

He was holding talks with the ambassadors of Bahrain and Egypt, the Charge d’affaires of Saudi Arabia and the First Secretary at the Embassy of the UAE in Moscow.

Their meeting is part of direct contacts with major capitals to explain the reasons for the measures they took vis-à-vis Qatar.

The four countries severed diplomatic relations with Qatar on June 5 to protest its support for terror groups.

Slutsky called on Qatar to sit down at the dialogue table with its GCC neighbours in order to assuage their fears and resolve the dispute peacefully.

Russia was among the first countries to combat terrorist groups, Slutsky said, adding that Moscow had blacklisted the Muslim Brotherhood 14 years ago.

Qatar’s support for the Brotherhood was among the chief grievances of Gulf states.

Meanwhile, Qatar continued to feel the pinch of the boycott as its sovereign wealth fund was forced to inject deposits into local banks to shore up liquidity after lenders have been badly hurt.

Gulf News Report

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