Saudi Arabia accuses Qatar of making a 'declaration of war'

The Kaaba in Mecca.
(Image credit: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images)

Saudi Arabia is pushing back against a demand it says Qatar made regarding the hajj pilgrimage made by Muslims to Mecca, calling it a "declaration of war."

The Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television network quoted Saudi Arabia's foreign minister as saying Qatar's "demands to internationalize the holy sites is aggressive and a declaration of war against the kingdom. We reserve the right to respond to anyone who is working on the internationalization of the holy sites." Qatar's foreign minister told Al Jazeera his government has no idea what Saudi Arabia is talking about, as no one ever said anything about internationalizing hajj. "We are tired of responding to false information and stories invented from nothing," Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.