Qatar closes Chad embassy, orders diplomats to leave in tit-for-tat move

A file photo of the Qatari Foreign Ministry’s premises

Doha has ordered the closure of the Chadian embassy and given its diplomats 72 hours to leave, in retaliation for a similar move by the Central African state against the Qatari diplomatic mission in N’Djamena.

The Qatari Foreign Ministry announced the decision on Thursday, a day after Chad served the Qatari diplomats with a 10-day notice to head back home.

In taking the measure, the country accused Qatar “of trying to destabilize the Central African nation through its northern neighbor Libya” without providing any substantiating explanation, Reuters reported.

Ordering reciprocation, Qatar said the timing of the Chadian decision showed that it “comes within the campaign of political blackmail against the State of Qatar with the intention of joining the siege countries for very well known reasons.”

By “siege countries,” the ministry was referring to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates, which cut their diplomatic ties and transport links with Qatar on June 5, accusing it of sponsoring terrorism. Doha rejects the claim.

Chad’s fellow African state of Senegal said earlier in the week that it had returned its ambassador to Qatar in a bid to encourage a peaceful resolution to the diplomatic crisis.

Senegal had recalled the envoy in the same month when the quartet brought Doha under the siege.

Doha defiant

On Wednesday, the Qatari Foreign Ministry said Doha’s ambassador would resume his diplomatic duties in Tehran.

Qatar had recalled its ambassador to Tehran in January last year after Saudi Arabia cut ties with the Islamic Republic, following angry protests held outside its embassy in Tehran and consulate in Mashhad against the kingdom’s execution of notable Saudi Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.

This is while the quartet of blockaders has given Qatar a list of demands before it could resume ties with Doha, including the country's limiting its relations with the Islamic Republic.

Doha has rejected the request as interference in its internal affairs.