Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): Contradicting Gulf news has emerged on the third anniversary of the political crisis that has plagued the Gulf Cooperation Council States since Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain announced they are boycotting Qatar.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar in June 2017 over allegations that Doha supports terrorism. However, Qatar denies these accusations.

The Bahrain News Agency published a statement on Friday (June 5, 2020) in which it stressed Bahrain's "firm and legitimate position in boycotting Qatar".

BNA did not attribute the statement to a government agency.

It added that the aim of the four states for boycotting Qatar is to convince it to "change and correct the course of its policy and return to the unity of the Gulf."

The statement said that Qatar's recantation of the security threats caused by its policies is still a "key condition for getting relations back on track".

"I do not think that the Qatar crisis, on its third anniversary, deserves commenting," said UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash.

"Paths have diverged and the Gulf has changed and cannot go back to what it was," he added. "The causes of the crises are known, and the solution is also known and will come in time."

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia did not issue any statement in this regard. 

Qatar's Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said on Friday there is a new initiative to end the three-year-old Gulf crisis and that Qatar is open to negotiations.

"We hope the initiative will produce results, we are open to dialogue and ready to meet each step forward with 10 steps from our side," Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani told Al Jazeera.

"We hope this initiative is different than previous ones and is taken seriously," the minister stressed, adding that there were some talks with Saudi Arabia at the end of 2019, but the process was halted.

Kuwait has lent a hand to resolve the crisis, but its efforts were not successful. However, it at least succeeded in eliminating military action, said Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad (September 7, 2017) from Washington.

Kuwait and the United States have tried to mediate the dispute that has undermined Washington's efforts to form a united front against Iran, which is locked in a regional power struggle with Saudi Arabia.

The United States has launched a new push on the four countries to reopen Gulf airspace for Qatari jets, especially Qatar Airways' aircraft, as a first step to ending the crisis, sources told Reuters.

"It is not the first time that the Americans have tried... Our position has not changed," a Gulf official said.

The gulf positions on the crisis are contradicting. While Qatar is speaking of a positive atmosphere, other countries believe that their paths have diverged and that the solution lies in Qatar's approval of the conditions set by the four states, which seems distant since Qatar has overcome the shock and adapted to the challenges of the trade boycott, particularly.

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