“It would be wiser that (Qatar) deal seriously with the demands and concerns of the neighbors …,” Anwar Gargash, the UAE state minister for foreign affair, said.

:: The UAE on Friday advised Qatar to take a list of stern demands drawn up by its neighbors seriously or the diplomatic crisis in the Gulf would turn into a “divorce” with Doha.

Anwar Gargash, the UAE state minister for foreign affairs, issued the warning more than two weeks into the oil-rich region’s worst diplomatic crisis in years.

He also accused Qatar of leaking a document containing the demands by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt.

“The leak (of the demands by Qatar) is an attempt to abort the mediation in a childish act that we have grown accustomed to from our brother,” Gargash wrote on Twitter.

“It would be wiser that (Qatar) deal seriously with the demands and concerns of the neighbors or a divorce will take place,” he said.

Links severed

On June 5, Saudi Arabia and the UAE led a severing of all links with Qatar for allegedly supporting groups, including some backed by Iran, “that aim to destabilize the region”.

Egypt, Bahrain and other allies followed.

“The brother (Qatar) must realize that the solution for its crisis lies not in Tehran or Beirut or Ankara or Western capitals or in media outlets, but in regaining the trust of its neighbors,” Gargash said.

“It is not possible to accept that the brother continues as the Trojan horse” in the Gulf or as a funder and “platform for an extremist agenda”, he added.

Earlier this week, a foreign diplomat told AFP the crisis had reached a “stalemate” and “won’t end soon”.