To that end, just an hour before Trump's comments at a news conference, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called on Saudi Arabia and three other Arab nations to ease their recent crackdown on Qatar. "People from across the region - not only from Qatar, but also from the states implementing these measures - risk losing jobs and having their education disrupted", said James Lynch, Deputy Director of Amnesty International's Global Issues Programme, who was in Doha last week.
Qatar has urged its citizens to take the moral high ground and not engage in online arguments during the ongoing political standoff with its Gulf neighbors.
The extraordinary denunciation of the key USA ally seemed to align the White House with the diplomatic blockage on Qatar that kicked off earlier this week by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Libya, Yemen and the Maldives.
Earlier on Friday, Tillerson asked Saudi Arabia and its allies to halt the blockade because of "humanitarian consequences" and also because it was "hindering United States military actions in the region and the campaign against Isis".
"While current operations from Al Udeid Air Base have not been interrupted or curtailed, the evolving situation is hindering our ability to plan for longer-term military operations".
But Tillerson also noted that other countries must do more - and he urged Riyadh and its allies to soften their embargo.
The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called for the full lifting of the Saudi-led blockade of Qatar, as the week-old crisis deepened amid concerns about its humanitarian impact. We are seeing shortages of food. Russian Federation is "ready to try to do everything in its power" to help resolve the crisis, he said.
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The tough USA line was a rebuff for Qatar's efforts to reach out for support from overseas.
As Secretary of State Rex Tillerson tries to heal a deep rift among Arab partners, President Trump seems to be upping the ante. "Qatar remains critical for coalition air operations in the fight against ISIS and around the region", Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said in a statement. They accused Doha of funding terrorism and cozying up to Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood, and banned travel and trade. Countries across the world - including Japan, China, Pakistan, the UK, France, Turkey, Brazil and Argentina - rely on the state-run corporation for much of their energy needs.
Insisting that isolating Qatar would not resolve any regional problems, Erdoğan vowed that he would do everything in his power to help end the regional crisis.
Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani was in Moscow today after talks in Germany yesterday.
Tillerson addressed criticism that the other Gulf countries including Saudi Arabia are also complicit when it comes to backing or fueling extremism.
Doha has vowed to fight isolation imposed on it by fellow Arab states and said it would not compromise its sovereignty over foreign policy.
A Twitter robot army, linked previously to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, has been deployed to quickly contain and steer such narratives on Twitter, which has a large user base in the Gulf.
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