Qatar will not negotiate with its GCC neighbours until the blockade is lifted, the country’s foreign minister told the state-owned Aljazeera network.

“Qatar is under blockade, there is no negotiation. They have to lift the blockade to start negotiations,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani told the channel in Doha.

There have been various reports in the past week that the UAE and Saudi Arabia are drawing up a list of demands that Qatar must meet to order for relations to be restored.

But Sheikh Mohamed responded to these reports by saying that “[Qatar] we cannot just have (vague) demands such as ’the Qataris know what we want from them, they have to stop this or that, they have to be monitored by a foreign monitoring mechanism.”

It is understood that a number of bilateral talks between Qatar and GCC countries, mediated by Kuwait, are underway with Turkey and US keen on finding a solution for the fallout soon.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain, as well as other Muslim majority countries aligned with Riyadh, severed ties with Doha earlier this month following accusations that it was a sponsor of regional terrorism.

The severing of diplomatic ties resulted in the closing of key transportation links to Qatar. This included the closing of land, sea and air border, raising concerns over Qatar’s ability to import key building materials and food products.