Al Jazeera News :
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is set to begin a four-day visit to Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia on Monday to help seek a resolution to the ongoing Gulf crisis.
Tillerson will first “meet with senior Kuwaiti officials to discuss the ongoing efforts to resolve the Gulf dispute” later on Monday, before heading to Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the state department announced.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Qatar on June 5 and imposed a land, air and sea blockade on the country.
The quartet accuse Qatar of funding “terrorism”, an accusation Qatar rejects as “baseless”.
On June 22, they issued a 13-point list of demands, including the shutdown of Al Jazeera, as a prerequisite to lift the sanctions.
Doha rejected the demands and the countries now consider the list “null and void”.
But the Gulf state of Kuwait is still trying to mediate the dispute.
The US has been supporting Kuwait’s mediation efforts, but Tillerson’s trip will mark a new level of US involvement.
On Thursday, the state department warned the crisis could potentially drag on for week or even months and “possibly even intensify”.
“We’ve become increasingly concerned that that dispute is at an impasse at this point. We believe that this could potentially drag on for weeks; it could drag on for months; it could possibly even intensify,” state department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is set to begin a four-day visit to Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia on Monday to help seek a resolution to the ongoing Gulf crisis.
Tillerson will first “meet with senior Kuwaiti officials to discuss the ongoing efforts to resolve the Gulf dispute” later on Monday, before heading to Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the state department announced.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Qatar on June 5 and imposed a land, air and sea blockade on the country.
The quartet accuse Qatar of funding “terrorism”, an accusation Qatar rejects as “baseless”.
On June 22, they issued a 13-point list of demands, including the shutdown of Al Jazeera, as a prerequisite to lift the sanctions.
Doha rejected the demands and the countries now consider the list “null and void”.
But the Gulf state of Kuwait is still trying to mediate the dispute.
The US has been supporting Kuwait’s mediation efforts, but Tillerson’s trip will mark a new level of US involvement.
On Thursday, the state department warned the crisis could potentially drag on for week or even months and “possibly even intensify”.
“We’ve become increasingly concerned that that dispute is at an impasse at this point. We believe that this could potentially drag on for weeks; it could drag on for months; it could possibly even intensify,” state department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.
