Qatar's ambassador to Australia Nasser bin Hamad al-Khalifa has said the demands laid out by the Saudi-led bloc are "beyond belief", according to Australian media reports. The 13-point list was presented to Qatar last week by Kuwait, which is helping mediate the crisis between the country and the Arab nations that severed diplomatic ties with Doha.

In an interview yesterday, al-Khalifa slammed the list as "unacceptable". “I think any person with a sound mind will see them to be unreasonable and to be unattainable,” he told ABC radio, as reported by news.com.au

“I think people have to reach some accommodation but, generally speaking, the way they are now I think they are beyond any acceptable position by any country. In this time and age you cannot tell people what to do in their own countries -- what to hear and what to listen to or what information they have available to them.”

Although it has not been disclosed what the list has requested in “compensation”, the ambassador said “they are only after our money.”

Al-Khalifa said Saudi Arabia and the other Arab nations were “trying to dictate” to Qatar, and claimed they were breaking international law. “That is not acceptable. That is a violation of international law, violation of good neighbourhood. When you ask another country, that is not acceptable,” he said.

On the demand for Qatar to shut down Al Jazeera, he said: “They are against any type of free press. They want the Arab world to be kept ignorant to what’s going on. They don’t want to have any voice for their ordinary people.”

Further, al-Khalifa said the demand was “beyond their right”. “For us to close Al Jazeera, I think that is intruding into our internal policy, our right to have any type of a press we like. I think their demands are beyond belief,” he added.

Al-Khalifa said Qatar would look at the list of demands and reply “in due time”. “Our position is to look at the legal and political basis,” he said. “We are always ready to sit down and negotiate but it will not be on their own terms, it will be on our terms as well.”

The ambassador noted that there were some demands on the list that were not under consideration. “There are demands, which cannot be discussed because they are a part of our own jurisdiction. They belong to us, and they are not going to be discussed.”

He also said the blockade was not affecting Qatar as it had been intended. “We are OK with it. It’s not really hurting us as they thought. Some of their countries are suffering because of it more than we do.”

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