Qatar currency
© Fadi Al-Assaad / Reuters
Doha is threatening to sue Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt for their ongoing blockade and has set up a special body to investigate claims and calculate the losses to the public and private sector as well as individuals.

The Compensation Claims Committee will study the degree of the economic damage suffered by Qatari nationals and business as a result of the ongoing diplomatic and economic blockade by the four Arab states.

"This committee will receive all claims, whether, from the public sector, private sector or individuals," Attorney General Ali bin Fetais al-Marri announced Sunday in Doha.

The newly created body, which includes the ministers of justice and foreign affairs, will handle cases and build evidence to file compensation claims to the implementers of the "blockade."

"You have people who have sustained damages, businessmen who have sustained damages, banks which have sustained damages. As a result of this blockade," al-Marri said, as quoted by AP.

"And those who compelled these damages to happen must pay compensation for them."

The Attorney General did not specify which judicial body would handle any potential lawsuits, but said Doha will draw on international as well as domestic mechanisms to pursue their claims.

While the country is beginning to count the cost from the blockade that was imposed on June 5, the head of Qatar's Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the "unjust siege" had a greater impact on those companies that lost the Qatari market.

Sheikh Khalifa bin Jassim bin Mohammed Al-Thani said Qatar had managed to easily compensate and has imported goods from "alternative countries," Al Jazeera reported.

Apart from Iran and Turkey which have been supplying the country with much needed imports, the Sheikh said Doha has established imports from ports in Oman and India.

Despite growing pressure from the Arab quartet, petroleum and gas-rich Qatar remains confident and defiant that it can survive the isolation.

"We have sovereign wealth funds of 250 percent of the gross domestic product, we have Qatar Central Bank reserves, and we have a ministry of finance strategic reserve," the country's finance minister Ali Sharif al-Emadi told The Times earlier this week.