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Reuters: U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Monday that they did not expect a decision by some Gulf countries to sever ties with Qatar to affect the fight against terrorism but urged them to address their differences.
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain severed their ties with Qatar on Monday, accusing it of supporting terrorism, in an unprecedented breach between the most powerful members of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
The coordinated move dramatically escalates a dispute over Qatar’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood, the world’s oldest Islamist movement, and adds accusations that Doha even backs the agenda of regional arch-rival Iran.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson talks to the media about the withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement at the State Department in Washington, U.S., 2 June, 2017 – REUTERS
“I do not expect that this will have any significant impact, if any impact at all, on the unified - the unified - fight against terrorism in the region or globally,” Tillerson told reporters in Sydney after meetings between Australian and U.S. foreign and defence ministers.
The region plays an important role for the U.S. military in the fight against Islamic State. Bahrain houses the U.S. Navy’s Fifth fleet, which patrols the seas of the Middle East and Central Asia, while Qatar is home to the Al Udeid Airbase, from where the United States carries out airstrikes against militants in the region.
The decision comes during a critical moment in the fight against Islamic State. The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said on Saturday that it was days away from a U.S.-backed operation by Syrian forces to capture Islamic State’s Syrian “capital” of Raqqa.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias backed by the U.S.-led coalition, has been encircling Raqqa since November in a multi-phased campaign to drive Islamic State from the city where it has planned attacks on the West.
The assault on Raqqa will pile more pressure on Islamic State’s self-declared “caliphate” with the group facing defeat in the Iraqi city of Mosul and being forced into retreat across much of Syria, where Deir al-Zor is its last major foothold.
Tillerson urged the Gulf Cooperation Council nations to sort out their differences and said that the United States was willing to play a role in helping the countries address their differences.
Qatar asks citizens to leave UAE within 14 days
Dubai (Reuters): Qatar on Monday asked citizens to leave the United Arab Emirates within 14 days to comply with a decision by Abu Dhabi to sever ties with Doha, the Qatari embassy in Abu Dhabi said on social media.
“Qatari citizens must leave the UAE within 14 days, in accordance with the statement issued by the concerned Emirati parties,” the embassy tweeted.
Those who cannot travel directly to Doha should go through Kuwait or Oman, it said.
ANKARA (Reuters): A senior Iranian official said on Monday the decision by some Gulf Arab states and Egypt to sever diplomatic ties with Qatar would not help end the crisis in the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt accused Qatar of supporting terrorism, opening up the worst rift in years among some of the most powerful states in the Arab world.
“The era of cutting diplomatic ties and closing borders ... is not a way to resolve crisis ... As I said before, aggression and occupation will have no result but instability,” Hamid Aboutalebi, deputy chief of staff of Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, tweeted on Monday.
“To resolve regional disputes and the current dispute, they should adopt peaceful methods, transparent dialogue and diplomacy,” foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said. “No country in the region will benefit from the heightened tension.”
Cairo (Reuters): Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit expressed regret on Monday that relations between Qatar and major regional powers had got to the point of suspending diplomatic relations.
The Arab world’s strongest powers cut ties with Qatar on Monday over alleged support for Islamists and Iran.
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain cut relations with Qatar in a coordinated move. Yemen, Libya’s eastern-based government, and the Maldives joined in later. “Aboul Gheit is sorry things reached this point between several Arab states and is concerned about the ramifications these differences will have on joint Arab work,” his office said in a statement.
A former Egyptian foreign minister, Aboul Gheit said he hoped Arab states would overcome their differences and present a united front against common threats to their national security.
He called on all sides to return to agreements reached in 2014, the last time matters between Qatar and its neighbours had reached a tipping point.
Qatar has for years presented itself as a mediator and power broker for the region’s many disputes, but Egypt and the Gulf Arab states resent Qatar’s support for Islamists, especially the Muslim Brotherhood, which they see as a political foe. Qatar denies it interferes in the affairs of other countries.
New Delhi, (Reuters) - India will not be impacted by some Gulf countries cutting off diplomatic ties with Qatar, Foreign Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Monday.
“There is no challenge arising out of this for us. This is an internal matter of GCC (Gulf Coordination Council). Our only concern is about Indians there. We are trying to find out if any Indians are stuck there,” she told reporters. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Yemen and Egypt accused Qatar of supporting terrorism, opening up the worst rift in years among some of the most powerful states in the Arab world.
AFP: Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Monday that Arab states’ decision to cut ties with Qatar, accusing it of backing extremism, could herald a broad anti-terror alliance including Israel.
Israel has long faced resistance to its efforts to improve ties with Arab nations in the region because of its 50-year occupation of Palestinian territory.
It has, however, recently seen increased behind-the-scenes cooperation with some Arab countries, particularly in their opposition to Iran and in the fight against jihadists in the region.
“There is no doubt that this opens very many possibilities of cooperation in the struggle against terror,” Lieberman told the Israeli parliament in a televised question-and-answer session.
“We saw the United States president visit Saudi Arabia and he spoke first and foremost about a coalition against terror,” he said in a reference to Donald Trump’s trip last month.
“The state of Israel is really open to cooperation. The ball at the moment is with the other side,” he added.
On Monday, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE, Yemen, Bahrain and the Maldives all severed diplomatic ties with Doha. Some also cut transport links.
Riyadh accused Qatar of supporting groups, including some backed by Israel’s arch-foe Iran, “that aim to destabilise the region”.
“It is clear to everybody that this morning’s occurrence is just another illustration that even in the Arab states they understand that the real danger to the whole region is not Israel, not the Jews, not Zionism but terrorism,” Lieberman said.
Saudi Arabia said in a statement its measures were the result of “gross violations committed by authorities in Qatar”, accusing Doha of harbouring “terrorist and sectarian groups that aim to destabilise the region, including the Muslim Brotherhood, Daesh (IS) and Al-Qaeda”.
DUBAI, June 5 (Reuters) - Ports in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates’ barred ships flying Qatari flags after the two countries broke off diplomatic ties with Doha, in a move that raised fears of disruption to oil and gas shipments from the Gulf OPEC member.
The Saudi Ports Authority has notified shipping agents not to accept vessels flying Qatari flags or ships owned by Qatari companies or individuals, it said on its Twitter account on Monday, adding that Qatari goods would not be allowed to be unloaded in Saudi ports.
“Vessels flying the flag of Qatar or vessels destined to or arriving from Qatar ports are not allowed to call on the Port of Fujairah or Fujairah Offshore Anchorage regardless of the nature of their call until further notice,” authorities in Fujairah, an emirate in the UAE and regional bunkering hub, said in a notice seen by Reuters.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain said on Monday they would sever all ties including transport links with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorism.
Gulf OPEC member Qatar, the world’s top seller of liquefied natural gas (LNG), produces around 600,000 barrels of crude oil per day and is not a big crude exporter.
But it is a major exporter of condensate, an ultra-light form of crude oil, as well as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), with most supplies of the two fuels going to Japan and South Korea under long-term supply contracts.
The shipping ban will make the logistics of buying Qatari crude and condensate much harder, one Singapore-based trading source from a European trading firm said.
