'We are not ready to surrender,' Qatar's foreign minister says

Qatar is not ready to change its foreign policy to resolve a dispute with fellow Gulf Arab states and will never compromise, Qatar's foreign minister said on Thursday.

"We are not ready to surrender, and will never be ready to surrender, the independence of our foreign policy," Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani told reporters in Doha.

Qatar will respect the LNG gas agreements it has made with the United Arab Emirates despite its cutting off relations with Doha, he said.

He said that Iran had told Doha it was ready to help with securing food supplies and that it would designate three of its ports to Qatar but that the offer had not yet been accepted.