13 June, 2017
Families are being forcibly separated, and children pulled out of school.
President Trump recently returned from a visit to Saudi Arabia where he hoped to strengthen the U.S. Gulf-Cooperation Council (GCC), of which Qatar and blockade participants are members.
Qatar is home to the largest USA military base in the region.
Saudi Arabia's closure of Qatar's only land border earlier this week sparked fears of major price hikes and food shortages for its population of 2.7 million people, with long queues forming as some supermarkets began running out of stock.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain cut diplomatic ties and transportation links with Qatar on Monday.
"The most important engagement that happened so far from the U.S.is by the president, which we highly appreciate", Meshal bin Hamad al-Thani told the Financial Times.
"We believe these are unintended consequences, especially during this Holy Month of Ramadan, but they can be addressed immediately", he said. Trump told reporters at the news conference.
"The nation of Qatar, unfortunately, has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level", Trump said, echoing an allegation the Saudi-led group has used to justify cutting diplomatic ties to the tiny gas-rich kingdom.
"Others must also continue to eliminate factions of support for violent organizations within their own borders."In an apparent escalation of the crisis, staff at Al Jazeera, Qatar's influential satellite television news channel which often infuriates the rulers of the Arab world, said its computer systems had come under cyber attack".
With supply chains disrupted and anxiety mounting about deepening economic turbulence, banks and firms in Gulf Arab states were trying to keep business links to Qatar open and avoid a costly firesale of assets.
A senior counter-terrorism adviser to Qatar's foreign minister Mutlaq al-Qahtani condemned the development calling it a "policy of domination and control" after the aforementioned states as well as other allies cut ties with Qatar's over its alleged funding of armed groups. Several countries followed suit.
He admitted that the Emir of Qatar needs to do more to limit terrorist funding but said he has made progress.
Qatar's Al Udeid Air Base is home to more than 11,000 USA and coalition forces and an important base for the fight against IS.
On Thursday, Qatar rebuffed an invitation from Trump to come to the White House for mediation, saying it would ride out the crisis and that officials did not want to leave the country in the middle of it.
"I call on all states to take immediate steps to de-escalate the situation and to find a rapid resolution through mediation,"Johnson said".
"In the last few days, I've spoken to many leaders in the region, and as I said to all of them, we know you are stronger together", he said.