Kuwait is trying to mediate a crisis in the Gulf after several Arab nations cut ties with Qatar, moving to isolate the energy-rich travel hub from the outside world.
The biggest diplomatic crisis in the Persian Gulf since the 1991 war against Iraq pits several nations against Qatar, which is home to some 10,000 American troops at a major US military base.
Airlines have suspended flights and residents nervous about the peninsula’s lone land border closing cleaned out shop shelves.
In an interview with Doha-based satellite news network Al-Jazeera, Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said Kuwait’s ruler had asked Qatar’s emir to delay a speech about the crisis on Monday night “in order to give time to solve the crisis”.
Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates announced on Monday they would cut diplomatic ties with Qatar. Yemen’s internationally-backed government, which has lost the capital and large portions of the war-torn country, also cut relations with Qatar, as did the Maldives and one of conflict-ridden Libya’s competing governments.
Saudi Arabia said it was cutting ties due to Qatar’s “embrace of various terrorist and sectarian groups aimed at destabilising the region”, including the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaida, Islamic State and militants supported by Iran in the kingdom’s restive Eastern Province.
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry accused Qatar of taking an “antagonist approach“ towards Cairo and said “all attempts to stop it from supporting terrorist groups failed”.
Qatar has long denied funding extremists, though Western officials have accused it of allowing or even encouraging funding of Sunni extremists like al-Qaida’s branch in Syria, once known as the Nusra Front.
The Gulf countries ordered their citizens out of Qatar and gave Qataris abroad 14 days to return home to their peninsular nation, whose only land border is with Saudi Arabia. The countries also said they would eject Qatar’s diplomats.
The nations said they planned to cut air and sea traffic to Qatar.
Qatar Airways, one of the region’s major long-haul carriers, has suspended all flights to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain until further notice. On its website, the carrier said the suspension of its flights would take effect on Tuesday and customers are being offered a refund.
Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, said it will revoke Qatar Airways’ operating licences and close the airline’s offices in the kingdom within 48 hours. The Saudi ports authority said Qatari-flagged shipping vessels are barred from docking.
It is also ordering shipping agents not to receive any vessels owned by Qatari companies or Qatari nationals and not to unload any goods from Qatar.
Meanwhile, the Philippines has announced it will temporarily suspend the deployment of Filipino workers to Qatar. Labour secretary Silvestre Bello said the ban took effect on Tuesday, but there is no plan yet to repatriate the more than 200,000 Filipino workers in Qatar.