Saudi Arabia warns banks against raising Qatar exposure

Erdogan has said isolating Qatar would not resolve any problems.

RIA Novosti said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will meet with Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Saturday.

Migrant CARE executive director Wahyu Susilo said the crisis would sooner or later make an impact on the presence and safety of Indonesian migrant workers in the region.

Bans on Doha’s fleet using regional ports and anchorages are threatening to halt some of its exports and disrupt those of liquefied natural gas.

Looking further ahead, though, most attention is focused on the 2022 World Cup, which Qatar won the right to host in 2010 and has spent the last seven years preparing for with a huge construction programme.

Armed Qatari gunboats patrolled the corniche of the capital Doha on Friday.

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel accused the U.S. president of fanning conflict in the Middle East and risking a “new spiral in arms sales” with his remarks.

However, the Emirati Minister, who is also the Director-General and CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, warned that if Qatar continues on the path, “it will remain isolated and suffer economic and diplomatic costs”. Leaders in Doha also have supported al-Qaeda’s Syria affiliate, the Al-Nusra Front, in its bid to unseat Syrian President Bashar Assad. The action came two weeks after US President Donald Trump visited the region pledging support for Riyadh and threatening Iran for backing militants. When the Global Centre for Combating Extremist Ideology was launched, Qatar was singled out as the source of militant extremism in a volatile region dominated by shifting alliances. “It has to choose whether it must move in one direction or another direction”, he said. He said his country was “protecting the world from potential terrorists”. Those on the list, including the former interior minister, could not be reached for comment.

USA military officials, also speaking anonymously to discuss political issues, said the Al Udeid airbase in Qatar is vital to American air support against Iranian paramilitaries and Iranian-backed forces on the side of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s civil war. State-backed Qatar Airways, for example, has lost more than 50 flights a day from the blockade.

With Trump offering to help resolve the crisis, possibly with a meeting at the White House, the United Arab Emirates cut postal links to Qatar, and Bahrain reiterated a demand that Doha distance itself from regional foe Iran. The Muslim Brotherhood ruled in Egypt from mid-2012 to mid-2013 before the Egyptian military removed the party from power. Meanwhile, Turkey’s parliament approved sending troops to an existing Turkish base in Qatar as a sign of support.

It wasn’t immediately clear how Qatar, which hosts some 10,000 US troops, might respond to Trump’s critique.

Some Qatari-funded anti-Saudi websites had begun reporting on what they said were calls for protests against the kingdom’s rulers, stirring memories of the Arab Spring revolutions that toppled the leaders of Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. Around 90 Turkish soldiers are now at the base, it said. “But what the position of the United States of America.is something I can’t really say”.

“It is under control”.

The Qatar News Agency has been offline since the alleged hack occurred and it’s not clear if there was only one fake story planted, multiple, or any at all. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states accuse Doha of supporting extremist groups, but Tillerson suggested that all sides needed to do more.”The emir of Qatar has made progress in halting financial support and expelling terrorist elements from his country, but he must do more and he must do it more quickly”, Tillerson said. Several countries followed suit.

While Russia’s unlikely to act as a mediator in the dispute, the “active work” of Putin and Lavrov shows “that we’re interested in resolving the situation around Qatar by political and diplomatic means”, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters in Moscow on Wednesday. All that comes amid a crackdown on all dissent on the island home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet and an under-construction British naval base.