Feud over Qatar deepens conflicts across Arab world

Saudi Arabia, along with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Egypt and several other Sunni-majority countries have cut ties with Qatar since Monday, accusing the gas-rich Gulf State country of supporting terrorism because of its links with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and of helping Iran's agenda.

Sara Vakhshouri: Even though historically there have been differences and disagreements between Qatar and Saudi Arabia particularly with regard to their foreign policy and approach toward the conflicted areas in the region, the current diplomatic rift between Saudi Arabia and Qatar is unprecedented.

In all, 59 people and entities were listed.

Bahrain's foreign minister, Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al- Khalifa, is expected in Turkey Saturday to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to discuss the "latest developments in the region", Turkish officials said.

"By mishap alone in my half decade reporting from Qatar, I stumbled into Hamas chief Khaled Mishaal, Tunisian Islamist leader Rached Ghannouchi, now-deceased Sudanese opposition figure Hassan Al-Turabi".

"Amid the threat of terrorism, extremism to the region and the world and with the continuation of occupation of the Palestinian territories by Israel, the rising tension among regional states benefits neither the regional nations nor governments and is a threat to the interests of all", Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi said in a statement. We're seeing shortages of food.

"We have great confidence in the president's ability to calm this crisis and to resolve it", Al Thani said in an interview. After first appearing to back the Saudi-led measures against Qatar on Twitter, he shifted gears and called for unity among Gulf Arab states. Gabriel agreed, stressing that "this is the hour of diplomacy".

Regional tensions, already high following the diplomatic dispute, ratcheted up further after militants attacked targets in Tehran on Wednesday, killing at least 12 people. Sheikh Mohammed is expected in Moscow Saturday, and officials said Friday he spoke with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson by telephone. But he said there was no alternative to confronting Qatar, because the other five members of the Gulf Cooperation Council can't trust a partner that's "going to be duplicitous in his policies". After severing ties with Qatar on Monday, Saudi Arabia said it was committed to "decisive and swift action to cut off all funding sources for terrorism" in a statement carried by state news agency SPA, attributed to "an official source". Meanwhile, Turkey's parliament approved sending troops to an existing Turkish base in Qatar as a sign of support.

"Despite Qatari denials, Sky News Arabia and Al Arabiya kept running the discredited story, prompting complaints of questionable journalism at the channels", Al Jazeera said in its report, ending with, "Al Jazeera approached Sky News Arabia's joint owner, Sky PLC in the United Kingdom, to ask what media standards their Gulf affiliate adheres to, but they have yet to comment". "Senegal has decided, from this day Wednesday 7 June 2017, to recall for consultations its ambassador in Qatar", the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Al Thani also denied any Qatari involvement in a separate hack of emails belonging to the UAE's Washington ambassador, which have surfaced at various news agencies this week.

The United States, France and Russian Federation have called for dialogue while Turkey has defended Qatar and said it would further "develop" ties with Doha.

"The blockade is hindering USA military actions in the region and the campaign against ISIS", Tillerson said, using the USA government's preferred acronym for the group. It's also the world's largest exporter of liquid national gas.

Sheikh Mohammed said Qatar could nonetheless survive "forever", adding that it respected global agreements and would continue supplying liquefied natural gas to the UAE.