Saudi Arabia Calls on Qatar to Stop Supporting Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood

USA investigators believe Russian hackers may have played a major role in the unfolding diplomatic crisis between Gulf states by planting a fake news story on Qatar's state news agency website.

Still, the official says the U.S.is working to address the conflict and ensure the USA and its Arab partners remain united in their efforts to right extremism and terrorism.

Qatar complained two weeks ago about a hack to its state news agency, which published the story on May 23.

The biggest diplomatic crisis in the Persian Gulf since the 1991 USA -led war with Iraq pits several nations against Qatar, home to some 10,000 American troops and a major US military base.

The alleged involvement of Russian hackers intensifies concerns by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies that Russia continues to try some of the same cyber-hacking measures on United States allies that intelligence agencies believe it used to meddle in the 2016 elections. The U.S. officials say the Russian goal appears to be to cause rifts among the USA and its allies.

Last week Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected speculation that the Russian government has employed hackers to influence elections.

The FBI and Central Intelligence Agency declined to comment. Qatari officials told CNN that details would be made public once the investigation was concluded.

Speaking in Paris, he said the economic measures should put pressure on Qatar to act "like a normal country". "Because it was started based on fabricated news, being wedged and being inserted in our national news agency which was hacked and proved by the Federal Bureau of Investigation".

U.S. President Donald Trump, who tweeted Tuesday about Qatar funding extremists, called Qatari ruler Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on Wednesday and offered to host leaders at the White House to resolve the crisis.

Saudi Arabia Calls on Qatar to Stop Supporting Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood

The president's sharp critique of Qatar, which is home to a major USA military base, inserted Washington directly into the crisis that has pitted the tiny country against Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Qatar vehemently denies giving such support.

Trump had previously appeared to side with the Saudis and other nations against Qatar in a series of tweets on Tuesday. He did not address the false news report.

According to Al Arabiya, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Jubeir said Iran must be punished for its interference in the region and support for terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda, Al Arabiya News Channel reported him as saying early Wednesday.

Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson said on Monday he thought this was all a reaction to "a growing list of some irritants in the region" that "bubbled up to a level that countries decided they needed to take action". "Perhaps this will be the beginning of the end of the horror of terrorism!"

He said Qatar as an independent nation also had the right to support groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, despite its neighbors outlawing the Sunni Islamist group.

Qatar's ambassador to the US said Tuesday that he and other leaders were "surprised" by President Trump's tweets taking credit for four Arab nations cutting ties with his country.

Granted, a lot of the region at this time, including Qatar, was still under British protection and influence, much to the frustration of a swath of the country's residents, so, of course, not all was well in the region. Fifteen of the 19 9/11 hijackers were Saudi citizens.

More than 1 million Filipinos live and work in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain. "But the U.S. still wants to see this issue de-escalated and resolved immediately, keeping with the principles that the president laid out in terms of defeating terror financing and extremism", Spicer said, according to PTI.