Harsh Demands from Arab States to Qatar but Room for Compromise

On Friday, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, and a number of allied Arab states provided Qatar with a list of 13 steep demands that Doha must meet within 10 days in order to have ruinous sanctions lifted against the tiny Gulf state. Some of these demands 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. These demands seem almost impossible to meet and are seemingly meant to embarrass the Qatari leadership, but are they negotiable?

 The Cipher Brief’s Fritz Lodge spoke with F. Gregory Gause III, Head of the International Affairs Department at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University and noted expert on the Arabian Peninsula, about what this list of demands means for Qatar and U.S. policy in the region.