Qatar is the world's largest exporter of Liquid Natural Gas, but industry experts say shipowners are seeking clarity on the UAE's ban on Qatari-linked vessels calling at its ports. He also pointedly asked Saudi Arabia and others to ease their blockade on Qatar.
"The best position is to hope that if Israel stays out of this, what you will get is a compromise that will, on one hand, put more pressure on Qatar in terms of Islamic extremism, particularly the financing of extremists, but it will not freeze the situation with Iran as a whole", he said. Saudi Arabia's state-run news agency carried an official statement welcoming Trump's remarks, adding that cutting off terrorism funding "required decisive and swift action... regardless of its financier".
"We have all kinds of recordings taking place where they (Qatar) are coordinating with al Qaeda in Syria", he said.
Qatar Petroleum's statement comes during the biggest diplomatic crisis to hit the Arab Gulf states in years. But Trump said that he, Tillerson and military leaders had decided during Trump's trip to Saudi Arabia last month that a public rebuke was needed. Speaking at the White House Rose Garden with the Romanian prime minister on Friday, Trump said that Qatar "has unfortunately been a funder of terrorism, and at a very high level".
- Saudi Arabian ally Bahrain reiterates its demand for Doha to distance itself from Iran and stop support for "terrorist organisations".
Earlier, a Saudi press agency statement said the move was necessary because of "grave violations being committed by the authorities in Doha over the past years in secret and public", including giving shelter to various terrorist groups, some of them backed by Iran.
"We don't know, all these measures, why they are being taken", he said. The tiny island-nation of Bahrain, which hosts the US Navy's 5th Fleet in the Persian Gulf, similarly said it "praised the statement made by President Donald Trump".
AB de Villiers fit to face India in crunch Champions Trophy clash
Identifying a problem is half the battle won and now they have to rectify their mistakes and put in a better effort in the field. The tendency will be there, because we all live for these kinds of moments. "We played in Birmingham before".
Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, a UAE-based columnist for Newsweek, says that the nations effectively blockading Qatar want nothing less than for the channel to be shut down.
Still, the Pentagon has been developing contingency plans in case there's any interruption, defense officials said.
Qatar said the terror listing is part of "baseless allegations that hold no foundation in fact".
In one example, the rights group said a Qatari man, who has lived in the UAE with his family for more than 10 years, was refused entry and sent back to Qatar as he tried to return home to Dubai.
Since then, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Bahrain and Egypt have severed diplomatic ties and transport links with Qatar. Qatar's neighbors have also criticized Qatar for allegedly supporting groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.
In some of the strongest comments related to those efforts by a senior Gulf Arab official, Sheikh Khalid told the newspaper he doubted whether Qatar would change its behaviour.
In a sharp contrast to Trump's tone and messaging, Tillerson called on Gulf nations to de-escalate the crisis with Qatar, citing humanitarian, economic and military costs. President Donald Trump on Thursday offered the services of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson as a mediator, while Kuwait, another member of the Gulf Cooperation Council, has also been involved in efforts to find a diplomatic solution.
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