RIYADH: Three Gulf monarchies recalled their ambassadors from Doha on Wednesday in an unprecedented escalation in tension with fellow Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member Qatar, accused of backing the widely banned Muslim Brotherhood.

Regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain said the decision was made in protest against Qatar’s alleged interference in their internal affairs. Doha said it regretted the recall of the envoys but would not follow suit.

GCC nations “have exerted massive efforts to contact Qatar on all levels to agree on a unified policy... to ensure non-interference, directly or indirectly, in the internal affairs of any member state,” the three states announced in a joint statement.

They said they had asked Qatar, a perceived supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is banned in most Gulf states, “not to support any party aiming to threaten the security and stability of any GCC member”, citing antagonistic media campaigns.

Critics accuse the influential Doha-based Al-Jazeera satellite channel of biased coverage in favour of the Muslim Brotherhood, and several of its journalists are on trial on Egypt for allegedly supporting the group.

The joint statement said Doha had failed to comply with a commitment by Qatar’s emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani to non-interference, made during a summit in Riyadh last year with Kuwait’s emir and the Saudi monarch.

During the tripartite meeting in Riyadh in November, Kuwait’s emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah had tried to ease tensions between Saudi King Abdullah and Sheikh Tamim.

But the ambassadors’ recall followed what newspapers described as a “stormy” meeting of foreign ministers from the six-nation GCC in Riyadh.

The Al-Hayat daily reported that the talks lasted nine hours because of “differences on several issues, among them inter-Gulf relations”.

Kuwaiti parliament speaker Marzouk al-Ghanem expressed “deep concern and alarm” over the recalls, and the Qatar Stock Exchange closed 2.09 per cent down.

Qatar said the recalls were linked to “differences over issues outside the Gulf Cooperation Council”, apparently referring to Egypt.—AFP