Dubai: Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice-President and Prime Minister and the ruler of Dubai, has urged Qatar to “return to the GCC fold” in a new poem published on his website and his Instagram account.
The Arabic poem, titled Al Dharb Wadeh (The way is clear) called for unity in the region, stating that Arabs in the Gulf Cooperation Council have been living as one people from “time immemorial”.
“Now, it is time to get united and be one heart and protect each other without any grudge or hatred,” he wrote on Wednesday.
The Dubai ruler stressed that “the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has always stood, and will forever stand, as its neighbours’ champion” and called for the neighbourhood relations to grow stronger.
Al Maktoum also advised Doha to return to its Arab surroundings and said the pathway is clear, and that the region’s strategy is singular.
“We will keep advising Qatar openly in line with the instructions of Prophet Muhammad, when he said in a prophetic Hadith (saying): A wolf eats only an out-of-the-way sheep,” the poem stated.
Al Maktoum said that the staying within the umbrella of the GCC was the “only way to safeguard Qatar from the fangs of wolves”.
The poem comes after the Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain cut all ties with Qatar earlier this month, accusing the country of funding hardline Islamist militant groups in the region.
The four nations last week sent a list of 13 demands to Doha, including shutting down a Turkish military base, closing the Al Jazeera TV channel and curbing ties with Iran.
While Qatar termed the demands “unreasonable”, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir affirmed this week that the demands were “non-negotiable”.
“We made our point, we took our steps and it’s up to the Qataris to amend their behaviour and once they do, things will be worked out, but if they don’t, they will remain isolated,” Al-Jubeir said.
Omar Ghobash, the UAE Ambassador to Russia, said that if Qatar doesn’t comply, fresh sanctions could be imposed.
