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Sunday, December 16, 2018

Qatar foreign minister: No progress has been made on solving the Saudi-led Gulf blockade yet

Qatar's foreign minister on Sunday expressed disappointment over a lack of initiative by fellow Gulf countries to make progress on resolving the Saudi-led blockade on Doha.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt last year imposed a blockade on their neighboring Middle Eastern country, closing their land, sea and air borders with Qatar.

Riyadh and its allies have accused the country of supporting terrorism, which Doha consistently denies.

"Unfortunately there is no progress being made yet," Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani told CNBC's Hadley Gamble.

The minister said Kuwait's emir had been proactive in trying to "put the issue again on the top of the table," but that fellow Gulf states were reluctant to resolve the dispute.

"Some of the blockading countries, they want just to block this discussion," he said. "There was some clear opposition from some of the blockading countries that they don't want this issue to move forward and Qatar does not know what is the motive behind it."

"We are still waiting to hear back from the Kuwaitis if there is any progress," he added.

Relations between the oil-rich states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have been fraught since Saudi Arabia, joined by Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, imposed an economic and diplomatic blockade on Qatar in 2017. Riyadh and its allies accuse Qatar of supporting terrorism, which Doha consistently denies.

On December 3, Qatar announced its planned departure from OPEC, the 15-member cartel of oil-exporting countries whose largest producer is Saudi Arabia. Qatar and the Saudi-led bloc have frequently blamed one another for preventing a solution from being reached.

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