Doha / Information Office / June 06

Qatar is open to mediation to resolve the crisis that has seen a group of nearby countries move to sever diplomatic ties with Doha, HE Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said.

"We are willing to sit and talk," Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said Tuesday in an interview with CNN, adding that the "progressive and modern" country believes in diplomacy and promoting peace in the Middle East.

"We are not a superpower here, we are not believing in solving things with confrontation," HE the foreign minister said, stressing that Qatar is combating terror financing and "protecting the world from potential terrorists."

HE Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani disputed a Saudi statement accusing Qatar of "embracing terrorist and sectarian groups aimed at de-stabilizing the region."

"With all due respect, this statement is full of contradictions because it is saying that we are supporting Iran and on the other hand supporting the extremist groups in Syria, and (that) we are supporting the

Muslim Brotherhood in Saudi or in Yemen and we are supporting the Iranian-backed Houthis from the other side. In all battlefields, there are adversaries," he told CNN.

"About our support to the Saudi opposition or the sectarian movements in al-Qatif, this is totally false information. Actually the cooperation between our security and intelligence agencies between Qatar and Saudi has been serving the purpose of the national security of Saudi," HE the foreign minister added.

Referring to tweets from U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday about the diplomatic crisis, HE Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said that during Trump's recent visit to the region, he and HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani discussed the issue "that the funding of terrorism needs to be stopped by various countries."

He said that there have been multiple reports issued by official agencies in the United States "commending our role in combating terror financing."