{"id":314342,"date":"2017-06-24T19:13:47","date_gmt":"2017-06-24T18:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/saudi-arabia-issues-provocative-ultimatum-to-qatar\/"},"modified":"2017-06-24T19:13:47","modified_gmt":"2017-06-24T18:13:47","slug":"saudi-arabia-issues-provocative-ultimatum-to-qatar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/saudi-arabia-issues-provocative-ultimatum-to-qatar\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi Arabia issues provocative ultimatum to Qatar"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"content\">\n<h3 class=\"nomargin\">\u00a0<\/h3>\n<h2>Saudi Arabia issues provocative ultimatum to Qatar<\/h2>\n<h5>\n<p>    By<br \/>\n    Peter Symonds<br \/>\n    <br \/>24 June 2017<\/p>\n<\/h5>\n<p>Saudi Arabia and its allies have issued an extraordinary ultimatum to Qatar that sets the stage for a dramatic escalation of the confrontation that began with the imposition of a diplomatic and economic blockade in early June. Qatar has been given 10 days to agree to a sweeping list of 13 demands or face unspecified consequences. Acquiescence would transform the tiny, energy-rich Gulf state into a political vassal of Riyadh.<\/p>\n<p>The demands, which were published yesterday, are a calculated provocation, which, as Saudi Arabia and its allies understand only too well, will almost certainly be rejected. According to the Associated Press (AP), Qatar\u2019s neighbours are insisting that their demands are a bottom line\u2014that is, non-negotiable\u2014and are warning of further penalties beyond the existing restrictions on air, sea and land routes.<\/p>\n<p>Yousef al-Otaiba, United Arab Emirates (UAE) ambassador to the US, told AP that there would be \u201cno military element\u201d to the sanctions on Qatar, but no credence can be placed in this assurance. The imposition of a blockade by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain is tantamount to an act of war and provides ample opportunity for a provocation that could precipitate military conflict.<\/p>\n<p>In a display of staggering hypocrisy, Saudi Arabia, which is notorious for its funding of Islamist militias, is exploiting the \u201cwar on terror\u201d as the pretext for its ultimatum. The demands include Qatar\u2019s severing ties to a list of &#8220;terrorist, sectarian and ideological organizations\u201d and handing over &#8220;terrorist figures,&#8221; fugitives and wanted individuals from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain.<\/p>\n<p>Qatar has vigorously denied the allegations and declared that it will not&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsws.org\/en\/articles\/2017\/06\/24\/saud-j24.html\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 Saudi Arabia issues provocative ultimatum to Qatar By Peter Symonds 24 June 2017 Saudi Arabia and its allies have issued an extraordinary ultimatum to Qatar that sets the stage for a dramatic escalation of the confrontation that began with the imposition of a diplomatic and economic blockade in early June. Qatar has been given [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2526,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-314342","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2526"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314342\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}