UNITED NATIONS, July 19: Four Arab nations that cut ties with Qatar urged the tiny Gulf nation Tuesday to commit to six principles on combatting extremism and terrorism and negotiate a plan with specific measures to implement them — a step that could pave the way for an early resolution of the crisis.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain broke diplomatic relations with Qatar in early June largely over their allegations that it supports terrorist and extremist groups — a charge Qatar rejects. They initially made 13 demands, which Qatar also dismissed.

Saudi Arabia’s U.N. Ambassador Abdallah Al-Mouallimi told a briefing for a group of U.N. correspondents that the four nations are now committed to the six principles agreed to by their foreign ministers at a meeting in Cairo on July 5, and hope Qatar will support them as well.

The principles include commitments to combat extremism and terrorism, prevent financing and safe havens for such groups, and suspend all acts of provocation and speeches inciting hatred or violence.

Al-Mouallimi said the four-nation quartet thinks it “should be easy for the Qataris to accept” the six principles. He stressed that implementation and monitoring must be “essential components,” and “there will be no compromise when it comes to principles.”

But he said both sides can talk about details of “the tactics” and “the tools” to implement them — “and that’s where we can have discussion and compromise.”

The Saudi ambassador explained that the initial 13 points included some principles and some tools to achieve compliance.

Mixed in the 13 points were what Western nations might see as fair demands, such as cracking down on support for extremists and curbing ties with Iran, and tougher-to-swallow calls to shut down the Al-Jazeera television network — one of Qatar’s best-known brands — and kick out troops from NATO member Turkey, which has a base in Qatar.

Al-Mouallimi stressed that stopping incitement to violence is essential, but he said closing Al-Jazeera might not be necessary.

“If the only way to achieve that is by closing down Al-Jazeera, fine,” he said. “If we can achieve that without closing down Al-Jazeera, that’s also fine. The important thing is the objective and the principle involved.”

UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation Reem Al Hashimy said all the countries involved have strong relations with the United States “and we believe that the Americans have a very constructive and a very important role to play in hopefully creating a peaceful resolution to this current crisis.”

President Donald Trump has sided strongly with Saudi Arabia and the UAE in the dispute, publicly backing their contention that Qatar is a supporter of Islamic militant groups and a destabilizing force in the Middle East.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson recently concluded several days of shuttle diplomacy and sealed a deal to intensify Qatar’s counterterrorism efforts. The memorandum of understanding signed by the U.S. and Qatar lays out steps Qatar can take to bolster its fight against terrorism and address shortfalls in policing terrorism funding.

Al Hashimy called the MOU “an excellent step.”

“We’d like to see more of that,” she said. “We’d like to see stronger measures taken and stronger commitment made to address that.”

Al Hashimy said “at this stage the ball is in Qatar’s court.”

“We’re looking for a serious change in behavior, serious measures,” she said. “No more talk.”

Qatar has further escalated the situation by encouraging Turkey’s military presence, Al Hashimy said.

“We do not want to see a military escalation of any kind,” she said. “We hope to be able to resolve this internally and among ourselves with the assistance of strong mediation, whether it’s from the U.S. or the Kuwaitis.”

Al-Mouallimi stressed that Qatar’s future lies with its neighbors not with “faraway places,” a clear reference to Turkey and Iran which are supporting Doha.

“Our Turkish brothers need to recognize that the era of covert and to some extent unwanted intervention in the Arab world has long gone,” he said. “If Turkey wants to play a constructive role they are welcome to do so, but trying to find the role through military bases or military intervention would not be productive, and would not fare well for Turkey’s reputation in the Arab world.”

Diplomats from the four countries who attended the briefing said there have been discussions about possible next steps.

UAE Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh said that “if Qatar is unwilling to accept core principles around what defines terrorism or extremism in our region, it will be very difficult” for it to remain in the Gulf Cooperation Council with Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain.

“So it may be a parting of ways for a little while in order to work things out,” she said.

Al-Mouallimi said the quartet briefed the 10 elected Security Council members Tuesday and hopes to meet the permanent members as well.

There are no plans to take the dispute to the U.N.’s most powerful body, he said, but “if we develop the conviction that that is a necessary move forward, then we will do so.”-AP

DOHA, July 3:  A group of Arab nations early on Monday extended a deadline for Qatar to respond to their list of demands in a diplomatic crisis roiling the Gulf, saying Kuwait’s emir requested the delay as part of his efforts to mediate the dispute.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain cut off ties with 2022 FIFA World Cup host Qatar on June 5, restricting access to their airspace and ports and sealing Qatar’s only land border, which it shares with Saudi Arabia.

They issued a 13-point list of demands to end the standoff June 22 and gave the natural gas-rich country 10 days to comply.

The joint statement early Monday by the four Arab nations said they expected Qatar to respond to their demands later in the day. The new deadline would expire late Tuesday or early Wednesday.

“The response of the four states will then be sent following the study of the Qatari government’s response and assessment of its response to the whole demands,” the statement said.

U.S. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, spoke with Qatar’s emir, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, as well as King Salman of Saudi Arabia and Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of the Emirati capital, Abu Dhabi.

The White House said Trump urged unity and reiterated the importance of stopping terrorist financing and discrediting extremist ideology. A separate statement carried on the official Qatar News Agency said the emir’s discussion with Trump touched on the need to fight terrorism and extremism in all its forms and sources, and was a chance for the countries to review their bilateral strategic relations.

Qatar, like the countries lined up against it, is a U.S. ally. It hosts the some 10,000 American troops at the sprawling al-Udeid Air Base. The desert facility is home to the forward headquarters of the U.S. Central Command and has been a key staging ground for the campaign against the Islamic State group and the war in Afghanistan.

The four nations cut ties to Qatar over allegations it supports extremists and over worries it maintains too-close ties to Shiite power Iran. Qatar has long denied sponsoring extremist groups and maintains ties to Iran as it shares a massive offshore natural gas field with the country.

“Qatar is not an easy country to be swallowed by anyone. We are ready. We stand ready to defend our country. I hope that we don’t come to a stage where, you know, a military intervention is made,” Qatari Defense Minister Khalid bin Mohammed al-Attiyah told Sky News.

Qatar’s main QE stock index lost more than 3 percent when it reopened Sunday following a weeklong hiatus for the Eid al-Fitr holiday break — its first session since the demands were laid out. It eventually recovered some of its losses later in the trading session to close down 2.3 percent at 8,822.15.

Qatari supermarkets saw panic buying when the four countries initially cut ties. But the capital, Doha, was largely calm Sunday as residents waited to see how the crisis would play out.

Abdelaziz al-Yafaei, a Qatari out for an evening walk along the city’s bayside, said he was reassured that things would be fine, regardless of what happens over the course of the next days.

“We have a government, thank God, that is wise and knows how to provide for all of our needs, how to maintain security,” he said. “We have enough funds in the country, on the economic side. All of the affairs are headed for the better.”

Qatar’s foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, showed no signs of backing down in during a press briefing in Rome on Saturday, saying the demands were never meant to be accepted and that his country “is prepared to face whatever consequences.”

While in Rome, Al Thani met with Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano, who gave his backing to ongoing mediation efforts led by Kuwait. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has also tried to resolve the dispute, with the U.S. last week urging Saudi Arabia and its allies to stay “open to negotiation” with Qatar.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has separately spoken with the leaders of Qatar and Bahrain, urging direct dialogue among all the states involved, according to statements released by the Kremlin on Saturday.-AP

PRITAM BHATTARAI, KATHMANDU, June 28:  It seems Nepal faced two blockades in the past two years with the recent one being the diplomatic crisis in Qatar. Nearly five months long economic blockade on Nepal imposed by India immediately after Nepal promulgated its constitution on September 19, 2015 crippled general life and cost a huge loss to country’s economy. India imposed the blockade expressing its displeasure with Nepal’s constitution, arguing it was not inclusive of all the communities.

The recent incident of the seven Gulf countries which declared that they were cutting off diplomatic ties with Qatar has also cost Nepal huge.

The country employs around 400,000 migrant workers alone and the crisis has cast a wave of fear how the crisis would unfold in the days to come and as a result of this, many others aspiring for job in the country are caught in a dilemma.
As it is the fact that remittance, the money sent home by migrant workers, contributes over 30 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the crisis in Qatar has turned out to be a matter of concern.

Last year’s economic sanctions on Nepal and the crisis in Qatar are similar in some ways for Nepal. The government has yet not come up with a concrete plan to compensate in case such crisis may emerge in other labor receiving countries and labor migration is discouraged from Nepal. Similar is the case with our heavy dependence on India for everything necessary for survival. The question always remains unanswered what would happen to the country’s economy if remittance stops coming in?

And the failure to effectively implement the laws and regulations that ensure rights of migrant workers is another serious issue that needs immediate attention. Although issues related to foreign employment have been focused on and some progresses reported over past a few years, the overall scenario is not good.

A report by Amnesty International says that Nepal is failing to enforce laws designed to protect migrant workers from being charged exorbitant fees and the Free Visa, Free Ticket policy is not being implemented or enforced properly. Problems of labor migrants continue and are commonplace in the country. Their rights are violated in residence, transit and destination countries. Their problems range from charging excessive fees than set amounts, exploitation and harassment in destination countries, cheating about the nature of jobs they are offered beforehand and compensation for workplace death and other foreign employment related frauds among others.

The Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) receives scores of cases of international employment related fraud on a daily basis.

Every time a government succeeds another one, its most probably the first promise will be to manage foreign employment and ensure rights of migrant workers. But the results always remain dismal. The failure to check haphazard charging of migrant workers and foreign employment related frauds has worsened the situation further.

Supriya Sherpa who hails from Helambu in Sindhupalchok recently returned from Dubai after being deceived about the nature of the work she was offered beforehand. She was promised to get a job as a cleaner at a university there but was forced to work as domestic worker. She said she had to work 22 hours just for what the salary she was agreed on to receive before she was flown to the labour destination. She said she had to face verbal abuses and was made to work irrespective of the period of international standard duty hour for labour migrant. She had flown to the Dubai through Kathmandu-based Shikhar International Manpower and paid Rs 25,000 for the same.

She was however lucky enough to return home safely with her own effort, but the bitter incident has left her devastated and worried about her family future. She has to look after her three-member family as the income her husband, a menial worker, draws cannot support alone. I am wondering what to do next for survival. “I cannot go to foreign countries for employment again nor I think I as an eighth grader drop out could get any job back home,” said impoverished Sherpa who is in her 20s.

“If the government would create job opportunities I could be fitted into one suitable to my skills and knowledge.”
Sherpa is just a case in point. According to the Amnesty International report, more than 2,000 cases were filed by migrant workers against recruitment agencies in Nepal last year, but only four have so far been referred for prosecution.
According to the DoFE, 418713 labor permits were issued in the fiscal year 2015\16, excluding labor movement through irregular channels.

However, Nepal’s recent ascent to the post of deputy member in the governing body of the International Labor Organisation (ILO), 50 years after it became member of the United Nations body, has raised hope for substantial reforms in foreign employment. As the members of the governing body are powerful with their greater say in the making of labor-friendly laws, and making an amendment to acts and laws among others, reforms in Nepal’s foreign employment are expected.

WASHINGTON, June 23: Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries that have cut ties to Qatar issued a steep list of demands Thursday to end the crisis, insisting that their Persian Gulf neighbor shutter Al-Jazeera, cut back diplomatic ties to Iran and sever all ties with the Muslim Brotherhood.

In a 13-point list — presented to the Qataris by Kuwait, which is helping mediate the crisis — the countries also demand an end to Turkey’s military presence in Qatar. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the list in Arabic from one of the countries involved in the dispute.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain broke ties with Qatar this month over allegations the Persian Gulf country funds terrorism — an accusation that President Donald Trump has echoed. Those countries have now given Qatar 10 days to comply with all of the demands, which include paying an unspecified sum in compensation.

Qatari officials in Doha did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the AP. But the list included conditions that the gas-rich nation had already insisted would never be met, including shutting down Al-Jazeera. Qatar’s government has said it won’t negotiate until Arab nations lift their blockade. The demands were also likely to elicit Qatari objections that its neighbors are trying to dictate its sovereign affairs by imposing such far-reaching requirements.

Only a day earlier, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had warned the demands must be “reasonable and actionable.” The U.S. issued that litmus test amid frustration at how long it was taking Saudi Arabia and others to formalize a list of demands, complicating U.S. efforts to bring about a resolution to the worst Gulf diplomatic crisis in years.

According to the list, Qatar must refuse to naturalize citizens from the four countries and expel those currently in Qatar, in what the countries describe as an effort to keep Qatar from meddling in their internal affairs.

They are also demanding that Qatar hand over all individuals who are wanted by those four countries for terrorism; stop funding any extremist entities that are designated as terrorist groups by the U.S.; and provide detailed information about opposition figures that Qatar has funded, ostensibly in Saudi Arabia and the other nations.

Qatar vehemently denies funding or supporting extremism. But the country acknowledges that it allows members of some extremist groups such as Hamas to reside in Qatar, arguing that fostering dialogue with those groups is key to resolving global conflicts.

Qatar’s neighbors have also accused it of backing al-Qaida and the Islamic State group’s ideology throughout the Middle East. Those umbrella groups also appear on the list of entities whose ties with Qatar must be extinguished, along with Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the al-Qaida branch in Syria, once known as the Nusra Front.

More broadly, the list demands that Qatar align itself politically, economically and otherwise with the Gulf Cooperation Council, a regional club that has focused on countering the influence of Iran. Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-led nations have accused Qatar of inappropriately close ties to Iran, a Shiite-led country and Saudi Arabia’s regional foe.

The Iran provisions in the document say Qatar must shut down diplomatic posts in Iran, kick out from Qatar any members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard, and only conduct trade and commerce with Iran that complies with U.S. sanctions. Under the 2015 nuclear deal, nuclear-related sanctions on Iran were eased but other sanctions remain in place.

Cutting ties to Iran would prove incredibly difficult. Qatar shares a massive offshore natural gas field with Iran which supplies the small nation that will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup its wealth.

Not only must Qatar shut down the Doha-based satellite broadcaster, the list says, but also all of its affiliates. That presumably would mean Qatar would have to close down Al-Jazeera’s English-language sister network.

Supported by Qatar’s government, Al-Jazeera is one of the most widely watched Arabic channels, but it has long drawn the ire of Mideast governments for airing alternative viewpoints. The network’s critics say it advances Qatar’s goals by promoting Islamist movements like the Muslim Brotherhood that pose a populist threat to rulers in other Arab countries.

The list also demands that Qatar stop funding a host of other news outlets including Arabi21 and Middle East Eye.

If Qatar agrees to comply, the list asserts that it will be audited once a month for the first year, and then once per quarter in the second year after it takes effect. For the following 10 years, Qatar would be monitored annually for compliance.-AP

DOHA, June 9: Arab countries put 12 organizations and 59 people on a terror sanctions list early Friday they described as being associated with Qatar, the latest in a growing diplomatic dispute that’s seen the energy rich nation isolated by Saudi Arabia and others.

Qatar dismissed the terror listing as part of “baseless allegations that hold no foundation in fact,” standing by earlier defiant statements by its top diplomat to The Associated Press that Arab nations had no “right to blockade my country.”

The sanctions list further tightens the screws on Qatar, home to a major U.S. military base and the host of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and shows the crisis only escalating despite Kuwaiti efforts to mediate an end to the rift.

Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates said they sanctioned the groups and individuals because of “the continuous and ongoing violations of the authorities in Doha of Qatar’s commitments and obligations.”

Six of the organizations are already considered militant groups in Bahrain, a Sunni-ruled, predominantly Shiite island home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet and an under-construction British naval base. Bahrain has been gripped by a government crackdown on dissent for over a year now.

Among the individuals named is Youssef al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian-born cleric considered a spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni Islamist group. Al-Qaradawi has been tried and sentenced to death in absentia in Egypt since the 2013 military overthrow of elected President Mohammed Morsi, a Brotherhood member.

Other names involving Egypt include more Brotherhood members and those once belonging to Gamaa Islamiya, an Islamist group that carried out a series of bloody attacks in Egypt in the 1990s before renouncing violence in 2000s. One is the brother of the Gamaa Isalmiya assassin who killed Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat in 1981.

Egypt separately has asked the United Nations Security Council to investigate reports that Qatar “paid up to $1 billion to a terrorist group active in Iraq” to recently free 26 hostages, including members of its ruling family, saying it would violate U.N. sanctions.

Names involving Libya include militia commanders and the Benghazi Defense Brigade, which is battling forces commanded by Gen. Khalifa Hifter, who has the backing of Egypt and the UAE amid that country’s chaos. The sole Yemeni, Abdel-Wahab al-Humayqani, is the leader of a Salafi party whose has been accused by the U.S. of financing al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the terror group’s branch in Yemen.

Qatar long has denied supporting or funding terror groups. However, Western diplomats accuse Qatar’s government of allowing or even encouraging the funding of some Sunni extremists, like al-Qaida’s branch in Syria.

Responding to the list overnight, Qatar issued a statement saying: “We do not, have not and will not support terrorist groups.”

“We lead the region in attacking the roots of terrorism — by giving young people hope through jobs, replacing weapons with pens by educating hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees and funding local community programs globally to challenge extremist agendas,” it said.

In a wide-ranging interview Thursday with the AP, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani repeatedly denied that his country funded extremists and he rejected the idea of shutting down its Al-Jazeera satellite news network, something suggested as a demand of the Arab nations.

He said Qatar, as an independent nation, also had the right to support groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, despite the fact that its neighbors view it as a threat to their hereditary rule.

Sheikh Mohammed’s hard line mirrored that of a top Emirati diplomat who told the AP on Wednesday that the United Arab Emirates believes “there’s nothing to negotiate” with Qatar.

“If anyone thinks they are going to impose anything on my internal affairs or my internal issues, this is not going to happen,” Sheikh Mohammed said.

Worried residents have responded to the crisis by emptying grocery stores in the capital of Doha, and Saudi Arabia has blocked trucks carrying food from entering the country across its only land border.

Doha is a major international travel hub, but flagship carrier Qatar Airways now flies increasingly over Iran and Turkey after being blocked elsewhere in the Middle East. On Wednesday, Emirati officials shut down the airline’s offices in the UAE.

Al-Jazeera’s offices have been shut down by authorities in Saudi Arabia and Jordan. The network also said Thursday night that its websites had come under a sustained cyberattack.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on the other hand, has approved sending troops to an existing Turkish base in Qatar as a sign of support.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who tweeted Tuesday about Qatar funding extremists, called Qatari ruler Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on Wednesday and offered to host leaders at the White House to resolve the crisis.

But Sheikh Mohammed told the AP on Thursday that Sheikh Tamim “is not going to leave the country while the country is in blockade,” in effect turning down the mediation offer. Analysts have raised the prospect of a palace coup in Qatar, a hereditary monarchy ruled by the Al Thani family that has a history of such changes in leadership.

Trump’s administration later suggested U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who as Exxon Mobil’s CEO had business with Qatar, as a possible mediator.-AP