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Qatar Row: Doha Backs Talks to End Gulf Crisis

Qatar Row: Doha Backs Talks to End Gulf Crisis
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Several countries had cut ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorism in the Gulf region.

Qatar Row: Doha Backs Talks to End Gulf Crisis

Neighbors including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates [UAE] had closed their airspace to Qatari planes.

Kuwait - one of the Gulf countries not involved in the dispute - had offered to mediate talks, and Qatar said it was receptive to dialogue.

In an interview with Qatar's al-Jazeera network, the Qatari foreign minister said Kuwait's emir would travel to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for talks.

Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani told al-Jazeera that Qatar was seeking "a dialogue of openness and honesty".

Sheikh Mohammed said Kuwait's ruler had asked Qatar's ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, to hold off on giving a speech about the crisis late Tuesday night.
"He received a call from the emir of Kuwait asking him to postpone it in order to give time to solve the crisis," Sheikh Mohammed said.

For their part, current and former US officials said on Monday that the country will quietly try to calm the waters between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, arguing that the small Gulf state was too important to US military and diplomatic interests to be isolated.

US officials were blindsided by Saudi Arabia's decision to sever diplomatic ties with Qatar in a coordinated move with Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, the current and former officials said.

Washington has many reasons to want to promote comity within the region. Qatar is host to the largest US air base in the Middle East at al-Udeid, a staging ground for US-led strikes on the Wahhabi Daesh [Arabic acronym for "ISIS" / "ISIL"] militant group that has seized parts of Syria and Iraq. US President Donald Trump had made defeating Daesh a priority of his presidency.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif held separate telephone conversations with his opposite numbers from Qatar itself, from Turkey, Oman, Kuwait, Indonesia, Iraq, Tunisia, Malaysia, Lebanon, and Algeria, as well as the European Union [EU]'s top diplomat Federica Mogherini to discuss the issue.

On Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said, "The solution to differences among regional countries, including the current dispute between Qatar and its three neighboring states, is possible only through political and peaceful methods as well as transparent and explicit dialogue among the involved parties."

He added that no country in the region and the world would benefit from the escalation of tensions among neighboring states, particularly at a time when both regional and world nations were suffering from the widespread consequences of the spread of terrorism and extremism and the continuation of Palestine's occupation by the "Israeli" regime.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan also spoke by phone with Qatari, Kuwaiti, Russian, and Saudi leaders on lowering the tensions.

Meanwhile, Omani Foreign Minister Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah travelled to potential mediator Kuwait to address the prospect of de-escalation, and a Saudi official also reportedly travelled to Kuwait City.

Six countries - Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Yemen, Libya's eastern-based government and the Maldives - cut diplomatic ties with Qatar on Monday.

Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE had given Qatari nationals two weeks to leave, and banned their own citizens from travelling to Qatar.

The states that joined Monday's move against Qatar, a tiny but gas-rich peninsula, include some of the biggest powers in the Arab world.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE closed all transport links by air, land and sea.

The UAE and Egypt expelled Qatari diplomats, giving them 48 hours to leave, and Saudi Arabia closed down a local office of al-Jazeera.

Disruption to airspace in the Gulf began on Tuesday morning local time. Doha, Qatar's capital, is a major hub for international flight connections.

Airlines affected by the airspace restrictions include Qatar Airways, Etihad Airways and Emirates.

When avoiding Saudi Arabia, their massive - and only - neighbor, Qatar's planes are having to take more indirect routes, leading to longer flight times.

On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia revoked Qatar Airways' license and ordered the company's Saudi offices to shut within 48 hours.

In a country reliant on imported food, residents have started to stockpile.

"People have stormed into the supermarket hoarding food, especially imported ones," one Doha resident, Eva Tobaji, told Reuters. "It's chaos - I've never seen anything like this before."

A substantial amount of Qatar's food is transported across the border from Saudi Arabia, which is being closed. That is also an important route for construction materials - needed for the energy industry and for the preparations for the 2022 football world cup.

Qatar's exports are dominated by oil and gas. They are mostly seaborne, so should not be immediately hit, but the general economic disruption could have an impact if the dispute drags on.

That possibility pushed the price of crude oil higher, but only briefly. Qatar is a member of the exporters' group OPEC and the dispute could yet undermine the organization's efforts to raise prices by restricting production.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

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