Monday October 30, 2017
Bahrain's Minister of Foreign Affairs Shaikh Khalid Bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa addresses the 72nd United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., September 23, 2017. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
CAIRO (Reuters) - Bahrain will not attend the upcoming GCC summit if Qatar does not change its stand, and the right step to preserve the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is to freeze Qatar’s membership, Bahrain’s foreign minister said on Twitter on Sunday.
Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa also said on his account on Twitter that “if Qatar thinks that its current playing with time and evading will buy it time till the upcoming GCC summit, then it’s mistaken. If the situation remained as it is we won’t attend this summit.”
He added “the right step to preserve GCC is to freeze Qatar’s membership in the council... otherwise we are fine with its outing from the council.”
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt have cut diplomatic, transport and trade ties with Qatar, the world’s top seller of liquefied natural gas, accusing it of financing terrorism. Doha denies the charges.
Reporting Mostafa Hashem, writing Nayera Abdallah