CAIRO, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- A sharp debate took place on Tuesday among Arab senior diplomats and ministers during a meeting at the Arab League (AL) headquarters in Cairo over charges against Qatar of supporting terrorism.
During the meeting, the representatives of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain accused Qatar of financing terror groups and interfering in other countries' domestic affairs.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, UAE's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Cairo Ahmed Qattan and Bahrain's ambassador to Cairo Sheikh Rashid bin Abdulrahman Al Khalifa said that they have proofs of Qatar's involvement in supporting terror in their countries.
For his part, Qatari Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi rejected the accusations as baseless and inaccurate, charging the four Arab states that imposed a blockade on Qatar of attempting to infringe on the sovereignty of his country through their blockade.
The debate came during the 148th ordinary session of the AL council at the level of foreign ministers, yet not all foreign ministers attended the meeting and some were represented by their countries' ambassadors to Cairo who are permanent representatives at the AL.
Earlier in June, the four countries led by Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic ties with Qatar and cut off sea, land and air links to the tiny rich Gulf nation, accusing Doha of supporting terrorism, interfering in their internal affairs and seeking closer ties with Iran, a Saudi rival.
Qatar strongly denied the charges and rejected a list of 13 demands put forward by the bloc for resuming diplomatic ties, including the necessity for Qatar to cut off ties with Iran and shut down its Al-Jazeera TV channel.
Among the six Gulf Cooperation Council states, Oman and Kuwait, who acts as mediator, did not join the anti-Qatar blockade.
