KSA, Bahrain, UAE recall ambassadors from Qatar

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain said on Wednesday they were withdrawing their ambassadors from Qatar because Doha had not implemented an agreement among Gulf Arab countries not to interfere in each others’ internal affairs.
The three Gulf Arab states followed what the local press described as a “stormy” late Tuesday meeting of foreign ministers from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Riyadh.
In a joint statement, the three states said GCC members had signed an agreement on Nov. 23 not to back “anyone threatening the security and stability of the GCC whether as groups or individuals — via direct security work or through political influence, and not to support hostile media.”
Qatar had been a backer of the Muslim Brotherhood movement that is banned in most Gulf states.
The statement stressed that despite the commitment of Qatar’s emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani to these principles during a mini-summit held in Riyadh in November with Kuwait’s emir and the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, his country has failed to comply.
GCC foreign ministers met in Riyadh on Tuesday to try to persuade Qatar to implement the agreement, the statement said.
“But unfortunately, these efforts did not result in Qatar’s agreement to abide by these measures, which prompted the three countries to start what they saw as necessary, to protect their security and stability, by withdrawing their ambassadors from Qatar starting from today, March 5 2013,” it said.
The move is thought to be unprecedented in the three-decade history of the GCC, which groups Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE and Oman.