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Turkish president Erdogan refuses to withdraw troops from blockaded Qatar

TURKISH President Recep Tayyip Erdogan rejected a list of demands from leading Arab states ordering him to withdraw his country’s troops from blockaded Qatar.

The pull-out is one of 13 demands contained in an ultimatum from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt delivered on Thursday by mediating nation Kuwait.

Mr Erdogan called the demand “disrespectful” and the whole ultimatum “an attack against a state’s sovereignty rights.”

UAE Foreign Minister Anwar Gargash claimed the goal of the blockade was not “regime change” but a “behavioural change.”

This was rejected by Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs which argued that the blockade has nothing to do with combatting terrorism but is about “limiting Qatar’s sovereignty, and outsourcing our foreign policy.”

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