Rex Tillerson's statement comes five days after Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and Egypt cut diplomatic ties and transport links with Qatar, closing, air land and sea borders over and sending the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries into their largest crisis in years.
"Qatar has a history of supporting groups that have spanned the spectrum of political expression from activism to violence", Tillerson said.
Tillerson told reporters at the State Department that the crisis, which has cut transportation links and trade, had begun to hurt ordinary people in Qatar, impaired business dealings and harmed the USA battle against the Islamic State militant group.
German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel accused the United States President Donald Trump of stirring up conflicts in the Middle East and risking a new arms race as Qatar's neighbors cut ties with Doha.
"Despite these efforts, entities and individuals within Qatar continue to serve as a source of financial support for terrorist and violent extremist groups, particularly regional Al-Qaeda affiliates such as the Nusrah Front", the State Department said.
Mr. Trump criticized Qatar for being a "funder of terrorism at a very high level".
But Tillerson focused on asking the four nations to ease the blockade, citing humanitarian consequences like food shortages. He added that it hurts USA business activities and the US effort to fight the terror group ISIS.
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The United Arab Emirates said on Friday that Qatar must acknowledge concerns about its "troubling support for extremism" and "re-examine its regional policies".
However, he had earlier claimed credit for the pressure placed on Qatar saying his recent visit to Saudi Arabia was "already paying off".
The president said during the press conference that "nations came together and spoke to me about confronting Qatar over its behavior".
Qatar hosts the largest USA military base in the entire Middle East, housing 11,000 American troops. The comments from Qatar came a day after Sheikh Mohammed rejected any interference in its foreign policy and said his country would never "surrender".
Erdogan has said isolating Qatar would not resolve any problems. It added: "We lead the region in attacking the roots of terrorism".
Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed Abdulrahman al-Thani told the broadcaster that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has confirmed the hack and the planting of fake news.
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