06 June, 2017
But the diplomatic rift could have a serious impact on some business deals and companies in the region, particularly Qatar Airways, which can no longer fly to some of the Middle East's biggest markets.
Shiite Iran has had no diplomatic ties with most of the mainly Sunni Gulf states since 2016, when Arab nations followed Saudi Arabia in severing relations after protesters torched its missions in the Islamic republic.
The coordinated move, with Yemen and Libya's eastern-based government joining in later, created a dramatic rift among the Arab nations, many of which are in OPEC.
"Things have been improved in Saudi Arabia, controlled, and in the UAE as well", Wahabi said. Trump asked at the meeting.
The United States will quietly try to calm the waters between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, current and former USA officials said on Monday, arguing that the small Gulf state was too important to US military and diplomatic interests to be isolated.
Kuwait and Oman, however, did not embrace the Saudi decision to isolate Qatar.
Qatar's imports from Bahrain represent 6% of its imports from the GCC countries.
Qatar hosts the largest United States airbase in the region, which is crucial to operations against ISIS jehadis, and is set to host the 2022 football World Cup. However, the 2014 crisis did not see a land and sea blockade as threatened now. "In other words, right now the only card that Qatar has to play is this military base". "He is totally aligned with Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, who also want no compromise with either Iran or the political Islam promoted by the Muslim Brotherhood".
The dispute between Qatar and other Gulf countries started after the Qatar's state run news agency was hacked recently.
Egypt accused the Gulf Arab state of supporting "terrorist" organisations, including the Muslim Brotherhood. The government of current President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has called the entity a terrorist organization, while Saudi Arabia and the UAE deem it illegal as well. Al-Jazeera reported that trucks carrying food for Qatar are now lining up across the border, unable to enter the country. Last month, Qatar's state news media published comments attributed to the emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, referring to tension with Washington over Iran policy and saying Mr. Trump might not be in power for long.
While losing access to Saudi airspace will force Qatar Airways into the costly maneuver of rerouting its Africa-bound flights, losing access to Bahrainian airspace could be catastrophic because it nearly completely encircles Qatar. Qatar denied it was interfering in the affairs of others.
"The campaign of incitement is based on lies that had reached the level of complete fabrications", the Qatari foreign ministry said in a statement. "Flights to Europe will most likely be rerouted through Iran and Turkey".
Qatar Airways said it had suspended all flights to Saudi Arabia with immediate effect, at least until the end of Monday. Saudi Arabia has also made a decision to block the only land passage for Qatar which runs through the former's territory. At that time, travel links were maintained and Qataris were not expelled. While Doha claimed the comments were fake and were swiftly deleted, their appearance provided a pretext for action by the Saudis and their allies to isolate Qatar.
Qatar has only about 1,000 troops in Yemen, and although they are well trained, with a Saudi force of several hundred thousand still fighting, their absence won't have a significant impact, Wahabi said.
