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ROME (Reuters) – Qatar's Foreign Minister said Thursday that "whoever is responsible" for the murder of the prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi should be held responsible.
Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani also told an international conference in Rome that his country did not see bitter conflict with Saudi Arabia and that it would maintain its ties with Iran after the United States would have reimposed the sanctions on Tehran.
"Whoever is responsible for Khashoggi should be held responsible, no matter what," said the Qatari minister. "We have to wait until the investigation is over."
Saudi Arabia faces the worst political crisis in decades after the murder of Khashoggi at the Riyadh consulate in Istanbul early last month, which undermined the kingdom's reputation and severely strained its links with the country. West.
Sheikh Mohammed said that the refusal of Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies to end a political and economic boycott of Qatar for 17 months was an "imprudence" that jeopardized the security of the region.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt broke off their trade and transport links with Qatar in June 2017, accusing it of supporting terrorism and its Iranian foe. Doha denies the accusations and says the boycott is aimed at encroaching on its sovereignty.
"We still see them (Saudis and Emiratis) continuing the same behavior, not reacting to any attempt by the international community" to end the conflict, he said.
The United States has increased pressure on Riyadh to put an end to its prolonged dispute with Qatar after Khashoggi's assassination with the goal of restoring the unity of the Gulf, which Washington considers essential to contain the Iranian influence in the region.
Sheikh Mohammed said that Qatar would continue to deal with Iran, which allowed Doha to secure supplies when the boycott was first imposed and was ready to mediate between Washington and Tehran.
"There is this dispute between the United States and Iran, it puts us in a situation in which we see a disagreement between our most powerful ally and our neighbor, which is not comfortable," did he declare.
"There should be a way to find a bridge to solve this problem, if Qatar can provide this bridge, why not?"
(Report by Davide Barbuscia, written by Nayera Abdallah and Ghaida Ghantous, edited by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)
Copyright 2018 Thomson Reuters.
