Qatar’s Call for Internationalization of Hajj Sites Declaration of War: Saudi FM

"Qatar’s demands to internationalize the holy sites is aggressive and a declaration of war against the kingdom,” Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir was quoted by Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television as saying on Sunday.
 
 "We reserve the right to respond to anyone who is working on the internationalization of the holy sites,” he said, without elaborating.
 
However, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani rejected Riyadh's accusation, saying that no Qatari official had made such a demand.
 
 "We are tired of responding to false information and stories invented from nothing,” he told Al Jazeera TV later on Sunday.
 
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt have cut their diplomatic ties with Qatar and laid an economic siege on it. They have publicly cited what they say is Doha’s sponsorship of terrorism as the reason for the boycott but are commonly believed to be irritated by Qatar’s partial independence in matters of foreign policy from the other Arab countries in the Persian Gulf. Some of the boycotting countries also face accusations of backing terrorist groups themselves.
 
The feud erupted back in May, when Qatar said its state news agency had been hacked and controversial comments falsely attributed to the Qatari emir had been posted on the agency’s website and Twitter accounts.
 
The remarks attributed to Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani were taken by Saudi Arabia and the other countries as incendiary and they proceeded to sever ties with Doha on June 5, offering the “terror sponsorship” claim as the reason.
 
Qatar said later in June that the hack had originated in the countries waging the diplomatic war on Doha. A piece by The Washington Post also later cited US intelligence officials as making a similar statement.
 
On Saturday, Qatar's National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said Saudi Arabia was “politicizing” the Hajj pilgrimage by introducing certain restrictions on pilgrims from Qatar.
 
The Doha-appointed human rights commission said that Qatari citizens have been told they can only enter Saudi Arabia through two airports, and that they must travel via Doha to be allowed in that would be challenging for Qataris who do not live in Doha.
 
NHRC has filed a complaint with the UN special rapporteur on freedom of belief and religion over the restrictions, which it said were in "stark violation of international laws and agreements that guarantee the right to worship."