06 June, 2017
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain asked Qatari visitors and nationals to leave within 14 days.
SINGAPORE/LONDON, June 5 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia and key allies on Monday cut ties with Qatar, the world's top seller of liquefied natural gas (LNG), stoking concern over any supply disruptions to neighbouring countries spilling over into global gas markets.
Saudi Arabia and three other Arab countries severed ties to Qatar on Monday and moved to cut off land, sea and air routes to the energy-rich nation that is home to a major US military base, accusing it of supporting regional terror groups. Yemen, Libya's eastern-based government and the Maldives joined in later.
"The State of Qatar has been subjected to a campaign of lies that have reached the point of complete fabrication", a statement said.
A former Egyptian foreign minister, Aboul Gheit said he hoped Arab states would overcome their differences and present a united front against common threats to their national security.
"(Qatar) embraces multiple terrorist and sectarian groups aimed at disturbing stability in the region, including the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS (Islamic State) and al-Qaeda, and promotes the message and schemes of these groups through their media constantly", Saudi state news agency SPA said.
Trump's trip, they said, amounted to a US endorsement of the Saudi-led bloc that has increasingly demanded that other Arab states - including Qatar - fall in line with its positions, including a hard line against Iran and opposition to transnational Islamist groups. Its Gulf Arab neighbours responded by blocking Qatari-based media, including Al-Jazeera.
How severe the impact will be on Qatar, which hosts the region's main USA military base used to launch strikes on the Islamic State group, depends on what further measures will be taken.
Qatar refuted these allegations, but the impact of the tensions it sparked saw crude's early gains reverse into the red this afternoon.
Trump and other USA officials participated in a traditional sword dance during the trip in which he called on Muslim countries to stand united against Islamist extremists and singled out Iran as a key source of funding and support for militant groups.
Qatar has called the severing of ties "unjustified" and announced that it continues to fight terrorism.
Four unnamed Cairo-based bankers said there had been no official communication to banks from the Central Bank of Egypt, and the cessation of dealings with Qatari banks came on internal orders from management.
Emirates Airlines and Etihad Airways- two of the three biggest carriers in the Middle East, and the two largest airlines in the United Arab Emirates-have suspended flights to Qatar over the country's alleged support for terrorist groups. It has often been accused of being a funding source for Islamists, as has Saudi Arabia.
A general view taken on March 16, 2017 shows a school that was damaged in a Saudi airstrike in the southern Yemeni city of Ta'izz.
SPA said Saudi Arabia has taken this "crucial action as a result of serious violations by the authorities in Doha, privately and publicly, over the past years to encourage dissent and sectarianism in the Kingdom".
The aggressor regimes have also imposed a total embargo on Yemen, causing severe shortages of food and medicine.
