Qatar Row Escalates: Jordan Joins Arab Powers, Downgrades Ties With Qatar

The White House says President Donald Trump told Saudi Arabia's King Salman Tuesday that a united Gulf Cooperation Council is "critical to defeating terrorism and promoting regional stability".

President Donald Trump offered Wednesday to personally broker a resolution to the Persian Gulf's escalating diplomatic crisis, as both he and Qatar looked past his pointed suggestion only a day earlier that the tiny gas-rich nation enables terrorism. It said Qatar is "promoting extremist thoughts and spreading chaos and disturbances across numerous Arab countries, resulting in big humanitarian miseries". The appointment was seen as an attempt to demonstrate that Qatar was adjusting from its "aberrant" ways, said Peter Salisbury, senior research fellow at Chatham House's Middle East & North Africa Program. "They said they would take a hard line on funding extremism, and all reference was pointing to Qatar". "Perhaps this will be the beginning of the end of the horror of terrorism!"

A CNN report then cited Qatar's foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani as saying Federal Bureau of Investigation experts had concluded that Russian hackers had a hand in the furor.

USA investigators believe Russian hackers breached Qatar's state news agency and planted a fake news report that contributed to a crisis among the US' closest Gulf allies, according to U.S. officials briefed on the investigation.

Qatar long has denied funding extremists, although 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.

Kuwait, also a GCC member, did not join its neighbours in severing ties with Qatar.

Sabah left Tuesday night for Saudi Arabia, where he met with King Salman.

Upon his appointment, Le Drian invited Jubeir so that they go over bilateral relations, means of enhancing them and joint efforts exerted to combat terrorism and extremism, in addition to the developments on the regional and global arenas.

For now, Federation Internationale de Football Association is predictably sidestepping detailed questions about the impact of the decision by Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to cast Qatar adrift diplomatically.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said isolating Qatar, including the use of sanctions, would not resolve any problems.

"We have no plans to change our posture in Qatar and we would encourage all of our partners to try to work together to reduce tensions".

There are fears that bringing food via sea ports and by air will lead to rocketing prices at the tills.

Earlier this year, the country's finance minister told reporters Qatar was spending nearly £400million a week on infrastructure - ranging from an airport to hospitals to stadiums - and was prepared to do that for the next four years.

The Arab world's strongest powers cut ties with Qatar on Monday over alleged support for Islamists and Iran.

To help Qatar clarify the issue and return to normal diplomacy, Washington sent a team of FBI investigators to Doha to probe the hacking allegations.

Saudi Arabia and Bahrain revoked the license of Qatar Airways on Tuesday and ordered its offices to be closed within 48 hours, a move that analysts said would cost the carrier millions of dollars of revenue.

Adel Al-Jubeir, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, said on Monday (local time) that for Qatar to restore its tie with the other nations, it needs to end its support for the Palestinian group Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. French President Emmanuel Macron had recently named Le Drian Minster for Europe and Foreign Affairs.

The crisis will have wide-ranging consequences, not just for Qatar and its citizens but across the Middle East and for Western interests.

Some 10,000 military personnel are stationed at the Al-Udeid airbase.