Gulf States Need to Compromise with Qatar

Last Friday, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt provided Qatar with a list of 13 harsh demands that Qatar must meet within 10 days in order to have sanctions lifted, some of which include shutting down the Al Jazeera network, severing all ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, reducing ties to Iran, and providing information on terrorist and opposition groups that Qatar has funded. The Cipher Brief’s Bennett Seftel sat down with Gary Grappo, former U.S. Ambassador to Oman, to discuss the list of demands, Qatar’s potential response, and how the crisis could be resolved.

The Cipher Brief: Are these demands, which seem almost impossible to meet, aimed at embarrassing the Qatari leadership? What is the idea behind these specific demands?