Azernews.Az

By Kamila Aliyeva

Iran will provide humanitarian aide to Qatar, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said at a meeting with former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, IRNA reported.

Pointing to the unilateral sanctions of some Arab countries against Qatar, the foreign minister said that Iran is ready to provide humanitarian aid to this country if necessary.

Several Arab countries including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt cut off diplomatic relations with Qatar, accusing the latter of supporting ISIS, Al-Qaeda and other terrorists and destabilizing the situation in the Middle East. They were later joined by Libya, Yemen, the Maldives, Mauritius and Mauritania, with Jordan and Djibouti announcing they would lower the level of diplomatic contacts with Qatar. Senegal and Chad recalled their ambassadors from Doha.

Doha denied allegations over its support to terrorism and extremism adding that the diplomatic rift was based on "baseless fabricated claims." Qatar expressed its readiness for a dialogue to solve the crisis and denied to take counter-action measures against its neighbors.

Turkey and Iran have been providing food and water supplies to Qatar after the crisis occurred. Moreover, Turkey has declared its full support to Qatar by adopting a bill on deploying Turkish troops in the country.

Meanwhile, the Elysee Palace said that French President Emmanuel Macron would meet separately in Paris with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and the crown prince of the UAE, Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed al-Nahyan in an attempt to solve the conflict.

The meetings are due to take place in the last week of June and are aimed at trying to defuse the Gulf dispute.

The information came after Macron’s 24-hour visit to Morocco for talks on combating terrorism, as well as the Libyan conflict and Qatar's dispute with its Gulf neighbours with King Mohammed VI.

It was stressed at the meeting that both Paris and Rabat are keen on mediating a solution to the crisis.

At a press conference following the visit to Rabat, the French president said he would meet with "one of the leaders of the UAE, who will be in Paris next week."

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

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