UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Mohammed Gargash attends the Arab League foreign ministers meeting in Baghdad March 28, 2012.

:: A UAE official said on Wednesday he ‘cannot rule out’ more steps against Qatar, although he hopes the country would not have to take further action.

“We hope that cooler heads will prevail, that wiser heads will prevail and we will not get to that,” Anwar Gargash, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, told Reuters in an interview, referring to more curbs.

Gargash said that “no one rejects the idea of talks but first Qatar must make iron-clad commitment to change policies.”

In the statement, carried by Reuters news agency, the official also said that Qatar, as a rich country, should realize it has the most to gain from a stable Gulf region.

The official also said that the UAE does not seek to disentangle economic ties with Qatar but cannot rule out more curbs on business between the two countries.

He said the UAE is witnessing a policy of “denial and media grand-standing by Qatar amid the current Gulf rift,” in which eight countries cut or downgraded diplomatic ties with Qatar – accusing it of backing terrorism.