Manama: The four countries that have boycotted Qatar are willing to wait for up to 50 years for Doha to change its behaviour, Saudi Arabias foreign minister has said.
“Relations will be frozen until they (the Qataris) change and I hope they will change, and if they dont change were a patient people. Well wait for 10-15, 20, 50 years. How long did it take you [the US] with Castro and Cuba? We can do the same with Qatar!” Adel Al Jubeir said at an event at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt in June last year cut off their diplomatic, trade and travel relations with Qatar after they accused it of supporting extremists and funding terrorism.
The Quartet insisted that Qatar didnt need support from other countries and knew exactly what it should do to end the crisis. Saudi officials have often said that the crisis was not at the top of their priorities or preoccupations and that Doha needed to face reality.
“We have no issue,” Al Jubeir said on Wednesday. “The problem with the Qataris is that they are still in denial. We need to move them from denial to introspection so they can fix the problem.”
The minister said the Quartet had no hostility towards Qatar.
“We just vehemently oppose their behaviour, which is very dangerous to us and has endangered our citizens and has endangered our security. Thats why we took the steps we took.”
