Qatar opens channels with Oman ports amid Gulf crisis

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The U.S has a military base in Qatar, which it says is crucial to its operations in the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia has closed the Qatari peninsula's only land border, threatening imports of both fresh food and raw materials needed to complete a US$200 billion (RM853.01 billion) infrastructure project for the 2022 football World Cup.

Qatar Airways has been hit hard by the dispute, with 18 destinations now out of bounds for the airline.

Pakistani ambassadors in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz attended the conference on Monday.

Saudi Arabia also said that Qataris who wanted to perform Islamic pilgrimages were also exempt from the measures and would be allowed into the Kingdom as normal.

In April, Qatar Petroleum's President and CEO Saad Sherida al-Kaabi told The Associated Press that Qatar and Iran "have an excellent political relationship" as well as an "excellent technical relationship".

Typically, cargo for Qatar stops at Dubai's massive deep-water Jebel Ali port or in the Emirati capital of Abu Dhabi, then gets put on smaller boats heading to Doha.

Speaking in Washington on Friday, he told journalists that the "nation of Qatar, unfortunately, has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level".

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He said Qatar must also do more to address support for extremist organisations, building on the steps they have already taken to tackle funding to those groups. Moreover, Turkey has declared its full support to Qatar by adopting a bill on deploying Turkish troops in the country.

Qatar has denied the claims made by Saudi Arabia and the other states.

Qatar shares control of a vast underwater gas field with Iran, which lies on the other side of the Persian Gulf.

He added that he will meet with his counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates later this week.

Qatar's Hamad Port is 420 nautical miles from Sohar Port and 1,131 nautical miles from Salalah.

Qatar has begun shipping cargo through Oman to bypass the blockade and show it can survive the diplomatic row with its neighbours.

"Following the sanctions ... on Qatar, IranAir has so far transported food and vegetables to this country by four flights", Shahrokh Noushabadi, head of public relations at Iran's national airline, was quoted as saying by Fars news agency.

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