The meeting reviewed the strategic ties between Qatar and the US and means of boosting them in all fields.
The foreign minister briefed Tillerson on the developments in the Gulf crisis as well as all the measures taken by the siege countries and how they constitute serious violations of international treaties and conventions, and international law.
The foreign minister expressed satisfaction with the path and development of bilateral relations between Qatar and the United States.
In addition, the meeting reviewed the recent events in Jerusalem, with the foreign minister expressing Qatar’s denunciation of them and stressing the need for the international community to shoulder its responsibilities to stop the Israeli violations.
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera quoted HE Sheikh Mohamed as saying there is no positive response from the blockading countries to the American proposals to resolve the Gulf crisis.
The minister said the US is keen to end the Gulf crisis that has now entered the eighth week.
He said the US stance with regard to the crisis is to reach a peaceful solution through dialogue.
Earlier, the foreign minister said in an interview to Al Jazeera Arabic that the aggression of some Gulf countries on Qatar, a committed GCC member, makes it necessary for developing charters and pledges to ensure avoiding recurrence of such violations of the system, which is mandated to protect the rights of each member-state.
The minister said that “the membership of Qatar in the GCC does not clash with its relationship with all countries, including strategic relations with Turkey or with Russia,” adding that “the implementation of the directives of His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, in his recent speech to work for the development and renaissance that we aspire to, we must establish strong relations with any country capable of contributing to the realisation of this renaissance.”
HE Sheikh Mohamed said that his visit to Washington is a follow-up to the efforts exerted by Kuwait in partnership with the US to reach a diplomatic solution to the Gulf crisis.
He said that this visit is also aimed at informing politicians, senators and MPs in the US about the negative impacts of this crisis on the region.
He praised the great efforts made by US Secretary of State Tillerson during his recent visit to the Gulf countries, which came out with proposals “we are going to respond to.”
The foreign minister said that “the US position demanded, since the outbreak of the crisis, the rapid lifting of the unjust siege against Qatar, but the contradictory statements of the siege countries
prevented this to happen.”
He said: “Accusing Qatar of financing terrorism is a pretext on which the siege countries relied to justify their escalatory actions against Doha in a flagrant violation of international conventions and laws, noting that Qatar has clearly stated that it is open to dialogue with these countries provided that respect for national sovereignty and the commitment of all the states concerned to any future agreement.”
The minister stressed that “Qatar will not negotiate on its national sovereignty and is ready to talk about the claims of the siege countries of the threat of Qatar to their national security, provided that these allegations are substantiated.”
With regard to the response of the siege countries with the statements made by the US Secretary of State, he said that Qatar is not concerned with how these countries deal with Tillerson’s statements, but “we felt a negative approach in dealing with mediation to resolve the crisis through statements and leaks that reflect their tendency to undermine the efforts to resolve the crisis.”
He pointed out that Qatar is concerned with ending the measures taken against it, but is not concerned with the precautionary measures taken by the siege countries to maintain their security as this is an internal matter of these countries.
The minister said: “Lifting the siege is the first step through which the siege countries prove their good intention to resolve the crisis through mediation, which is the responsibility of all to respect their efforts.”
On what is being published in some US media accusing Qatar of financing terrorism, the minister said, “Confronting the veiled campaigns against Qatar is to be faced by the clarification of the facts and explaining our point of view on regional issues, particularly the fight against terrorism.
“US institutions involved in demonising and linking Qatar to terrorism were marginal and used by the siege countries to serve narrow agenda.”
The minister stressed that Qatar will not miss any opportunity to explain its just cause based on facts and evidence,” rejecting “accusation by the Saudi Foreign Minister of Qatar’s granting a passport to Abdul Aziz Muqrin to carry out
attacks against the Kingdom.”
The minister explained that Muqrin, who was accused of carrying out terrorist operations, is a Saudi citizen and never entered Qatar.
In this regard, the minister referred to the “security co-operation between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, citing the official correspondence between the two countries, which saved the kingdom from several attacks.
On the UAE’s accusation that Qatar was behind the killing of Emirati soldiers in Yemen, the minister noted that the UAE side contradicted more than once in dealing with the incident of the death of soldiers in Yemen, where their statements changed from accusing soldiers to accusing Qatar of leaking co-ordinates to the Houthis and say that Qatar colluded with Al Qaeda a matter which reflected their quest for gossip among the Gulf brothers.
The minister asserted that the “Qatari-US relations have not been affected by the defamation of the siege countries and the accusations against Qatar as the US institutions are aware of the Qatari efforts in the fight against terrorism, which were hampered by the measures taken by the siege countries.”
