French Foreign Minister Heads to Gulf States to Help Resolve Qatar Crisis

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Le Drian will address a joint press conference with Al-Jubeir in the evening.

Jeddah- Amid speculations about additional escalations and a long estrangement in the Qatari crisis, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian arrives in Jeddah on Saturday as part of his Gulf tour that follows similar trips made by his US, British and German counterparts in the past weeks.

"France calls for the lifting, as soon as possible, of the measures that affect the populations in particular, bi-national families that have been separated or students", French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters in Doha, after he met his counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani.

Gargash, who regularly comments on the Qatar crisis to his 437,000 followers on Twitter, said the Arab bloc, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain, and Qatar were "heading into the long estrangement", Xinhua news agency reported.

A statement by the French Embassy in Riyadh said discussions will cover the latest global developments, the resumption of dialogue and trust between regional countries, the French-Saudi strategic partnership and ways to jointly contribute to peace and security.

During his Gulf tour, Le Drian also hopes that France could contribute in the Kuwaiti-led mediation that is fully supported by Paris.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Thursday ended his first stab at mediating a bitter spat in the Persian Gulf region, an effort that took him to three countries over four days but yielded little discernible progress in resolving the dispute. However, Tillerson left without making any statement or holding any press conference. He is scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia later on Saturday and will visit Kuwait and the UAE on Sunday.

Because the quartet was "a long way from political solution linked to Qatar to change its orientation", he said it would mean that "we have to find a different pattern of relationship".