10 June, 2017
Tillerson, speaking at the State Department, said the USA would help support efforts to mediate the crisis, along with Kuwait - another Gulf country that has stepped up to try to broker a resolution.
The announcement came a day after Senegal recalled its envoy from Doha, citing its "active solidarity" with Saudi Arabia.
Trump says he consulted with Saudi Arabia and others on a recent trip to Riyadh and chose to call out Qatar for its "very high level" of terror financing.
The Qatari government said the move "reinforces baseless allegations that hold no foundation in fact".
Those initial tweets also differed sharply from statements by Tillerson and Mattis, who at the time were visiting Australia and called for Persian Gulf unity.
The dispute between Qatar and its neighbours is "threatening the stability of the entire region", Sheik Mohammed bin Abdulrahman continued, adding that Qatar was still looking for a diplomatic solution to the crisis. Several other countries later followed suit.
Turkey has brought forward a planned troop deployment to Qatar and pledged to provide food and water supplies to its Arab ally, which hosts a Turkish military base.
"We will not abandon our Qatari brothers", Erdogan said.
The crisis has thrust the USA into a delicate position because of its alliances with all sides - and because Qatar hosts the nerve center for US air operations in the Middle East, including the fight against Islamic State.
They might've been reassured on Friday when U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called on those countries to back off their blockade of Qatar.
The president said during the press conference that "nations came together and spoke to me about confronting Qatar over its behavior".
The United States urged Saudi Arabia and its regional allies on Friday to ease their blockade of Qatar, warning it is harming the regional struggle against extremism.
Other countries, including Turkey, have voiced support for Qatar.
In his second intervention in the dispute in as many days, Trump urged action against terrorism in a call with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, a White House statement said, suggesting a meeting at the White House "if necessary".
Qatar has backed Islamist movements but strongly denies supporting terrorism. Reuters could not immediately validate the report.
State-funded Al Jazeera's acting director general, Mostefa Souag, dismissed accusations that its reportage is pro-Islamist and amounts to meddling in the affairs of other Arab states.
"Al Jazeera Media Network under cyber-attack on all systems, websites & social media platforms", it said on Twitter on Thursday.
The situation is particularly fraught as Qatar is home to the Al-Udeid forward base for U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations not only in Syria, but also Iraq and Afghanistan. "We truly believe that the involvement of the president and the USA will bring this crisis to an end". The ambassador left open the prospect of compromise, saying: "We are courageous enough to acknowledge if things need to be amended".