Blockade against Qatar amounts to ‘bloodless declaration of war’: Minister

‘Qatar says the Saudi-led blockade against Doha is a “bloodless declaration of war,” a day after the Persian Gulf Arab country rejected as “unreasonable” the demands presented by Saudi Arabia and its allies to end the unprecedented diplomatic row with the emirate.
Qatari Defense Minister Khalid bin Mohammad al-Attiyah made the remarks in an interview with the UK-based Arabic-language al-Araby al-Jadeed newspaper published on Friday.
He added that what Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt had done against Qatar, including closing the land, sea and air borders, were in fact “harming the citizens and damaging the social fabric” of the Persian Gulf.
Attiyah arrived in the Turkish capital Ankara to hold talks with his Turkish counterpart Fikri Isik and the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the issue of a Turkish base in Qatar.
“Qatar and Turkey maintain historic ties and my visit comes in the context of boosting defense cooperation between the two countries,” Attiyah said in Ankara.’
Read more: Blockade against Qatar amounts to ‘bloodless declaration of war’: Minister