Russia could remind world about Qatar's illegitimate blockade - ambassador
MOSCOW. Jan 4 (Interfax) - Russia, as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, could draw the international community's attention to Qatar's unlawful blockade by a number of Arab states, Qatari Ambassador to Russia Fahad bin Mohammed Al Attiyah said.
"I believe Russia can play a very constructive role by reminding all the parties not to violate the international legal charter that we all agreed on and we all signed up to and to resort to the mechanisms that exist within the international legal system to resolve any conflict," Al Attiyah said in an interview with Interfax.
"We urged the international community to hold Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt to account for the violations," he said.
While the Qatari government "has worked tirelessly [...] to ease the impact on the people directly and to make sure that negative consequences of social blockade do not impact day-to-day life of ordinary hard-working citizens and residents," the country is "still suffering a lot of damage as a result of this blockade," he said.
The most urgent problems include the separation of families, "the fact that people in Qatar who have businesses or assets in the neighboring countries, cannot access them," the significantly higher passenger transportation costs, and attacks by foreign media on the Qatari government and state symbols, he said.
"Qatar will continue to adapt to this reality, irrespectively of how hard it is, because the alternative option for us is to basically give in to bullying, give in to intimidation, give in to countries that will take the law into their own hands, and this is completely unacceptable," he said.
"There is no alternative for us. Either we live independently and freely in a mutually respectful way or we become a servile state to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt," he said.