Qatar has been given an extra 48 hours to comply with a list of demands issued by Arab nations that have cut ties to the country, including that news network Al Jazeera be shut down.
It’s the worst diplomatic crisis in the region since Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait, and has seen Qataris expelled from Gulf countries and transport links with the country cut.
What are the demands?
They include:
- Limiting diplomatic ties to Iran
- Severing ties to all “terrorist organisations”, including the Muslim Brotherhood and Lebanon’s Hezbollah
- Expelling Turkish troops now stationed in Qatar
- Paying reparations of an unknown amount and submitting to auditing
As well, Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates want Qatar’s international news network Al Jazeera to be shut down.
Qatar has previously rejected the demands as violations of its sovereignty.
Al Jazeera is accused of being a platform for extremists and interfering in the affairs of Arab nations, but the television network denies these claims.
It has called the demand to shut it down “nothing but an attempt to silence the freedom of expression in the region”.
“We assert our right to practice our journalism professionally without bowing to pressure from any government or authority,” the network said last month.
“We demand that governments respect the freedom of media to allow journalists to continue to do their jobs free of intimidation, threats, and fearmongering.”
You might know Al Jazeera as the former employer of Australian foreign correspondent Peter Greste, who was imprisoned while on assignment in Egypt in 2013…
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