Riyadh - SPA

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Bahrain issued
today the following statement:

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Bahrain would
like to explain that:

Based on the need for unity and cooperation  as dictated by the
principles of the tolerant Islamic Shari'a and GCC statute that provide for realization
of common destiny and unity of purpose that combine their peoples and the Council's
aspiration to achieve coordination, cooperation and interdependence among member states
in all fields and pursue eventual unity as a sincere desire of the leaders to make all
efforts to forge closer ties among GCC countries and realize aspirations of their
peoples  to maintain  achievements and gains in the forefront of maintaining  security
and stability of member states, and comply by the security agreement signed between GCC
countries;

GCC countries have made great efforts to communicate with the State of Qatar at all
levels in order to agree on a course of approach that ensures orchestrated policy based
on the agreements signed between them including the security agreement, and a commitment
to the principles that ensure non-interference in internal affairs of any GCC countries,
either directly or indirectly, and refrain from supporting any activities by militant
organizations or individuals that pose threat to security and stability of the GCC
countries, either through direct militant activities or hostile media.

This was followed by a meeting of GCC foreign ministers in Riyadh on 03/04/2014 during
which enormous attempts were made to persuade the State of Qatar of the importance to
take the necessary measures to implement Riyadh agreement and agree on a mechanism to
monitor implementation.

However, regretfully, all these efforts failed to make the State of Qatar adhere to
these procedures. Hence, the three countries have to start taking whatever they deem
appropriate to protect their security and stability by withdrawing their ambassadors
from the State of Qatar, as of today 04/05/1435 AH corresponding to 05/03/2014 AD.

The three countries confirm their keenness on the interests of all the peoples of the
GCC member States, including the brotherly people of Qatar whom they consider as an
integral part of other  GCC peoples, hoping that the State of Qatar take immediate steps
to comply with agreements and to protect the GCC journey from any rift while all the GCC
people build high hopes on their GCC council.