The UK will continuously look for opportunities to resolve the GCC crisis as quickly as possible, British ambassador Ajay Sharma has said.
“It (crisis) is an important issue (for the UK) that should be resolved because we would like to see a united GCC,” the envoy told a press conference at the British embassy in Doha on Tuesday.
Sharma highlighted the UK’s continuing work with Kuwait’s mediation efforts, led by its Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, as well as UK’s “friends in the GCC” in encouraging the parties to sit around the table and resolve the issue.
“Our desire for resolution hasn’t disappeared and our interest in supporting efforts to resolve this still remains very strong,” he stressed, also citing the support of countries such as the US.
Kuwait, the US and the UK have been calling for a rapid end to the Gulf crisis through dialogue, expressing their concern over the prolonging of the dispute.
The UK has a special relationship with the GCC, which it wants to develop even further but such crisis is impeding these efforts, according to Sharma.
“This matters a lot for the UK and that is why it will continue to do whatever it can to bring about a resolution,” he stressed. “Sometimes it maybe indirectly or directly, quite often, it may not be noticeable in a public way.”
“But no one should doubt our commitment to try to resolve this issue, the region is going through a tough time and we do not need to have more problems, any unnecessary problems in the region,” Sharma added. “We really want people in the Gulf to come together because we have a lot more big issues to deal with.”
In February, some 15 members of parliament (MPs) in the UK signed a petition demanding UK Prime Minister Theresa May to strive for an immediate lifting of the siege against Qatar.
The petition also encouraged blockading countries (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and Egypt) to respond to Kuwaiti mediation efforts aimed at resolving the crisis, which began in June 2017.
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