On Friday, US President Donald Trump also turned up the heat on Qatar, warning it to stop "funding terrorism" while his state department urged Arab states to ease their blockade on the country.
It comes as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson tries to calm the worst diplomatic crisis in the Persian Gulf in years. Tillerson sat a few feet away from Trump in the Rose Garden as the president put the blame squarely on Qatar.
Despite Tillerson's call for there to be "no further escalation", Trump's sharp comments were likely to further embolden Saudi Arabia and the others in their bid to isolate Qatar.
Trump bashed Qatar as a "funder of terrorism at a very high level" and called on it to stop funding terrorist organizations.
He has also repeated allegations made by Riyadh and Abu Dhabi about Doha's alleged funding terrorism through a series of tweets.
But he also warned the response - Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates cut diplomatic ties on Monday and are trying to blockade Qatar by air and sea - could be counterproductive.
The mixed messages are unlikely to diffuse the diplomatic crisis and point to a broader incoherency in the region, according to Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Puerto Rico votes for statehood in referendum
The opposition Popular Democratic Party had said "statehood will win by a landslide" because of the boycott by opposition parties. Congress has the final say over whether the territory changes its status, making the vote merely an advisory opinion.
The US has called on the Gulf states to "de-escalate" their row with Qatar, saying it has caused unintended "humanitarian" consequences.
Tillerson said the blockade was causing "unintended" humanitarian and business consequences and was "hindering USA military actions in the region and the campaign against ISIS", or the Islamic State terrorist group. "Families are being forcibly separated and children pulled out of school", he said.
Erdogan said Saudi Arabia, as the dominant Arab state in the Gulf region, should be leading efforts to unite the Arab "fraternity" there rather than dividing it.
"There has been no impact on our operations either in Qatar or with regards to airspace permission around it and we don't anticipate there will be", Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said on Tuesday. Turkish officials were not available to comment on the report but Hurriyet said there were plans send some 200 to 250 soldiers within two months in the initial stage. Turkey, like Qatar, has supported the Muslim Brotherhood, which led an elected government in Egypt in 2013 but was ousted from power by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
Less than an hour later, Trump singled out Qatar as a supporter of terrorism, an accusation the Gulf country has repeatedly denied. Numerous others added to the list are figures associated with the Muslim Brotherhood who have made Qatar a base, including Brotherhood spiritual leader Yousef al-Qaradawi.
He did urge Qatar to be "responsive to the concerns of its neighbors" and to immediately crack down on extremist funding.
Qatar dismissed the latest move by its neighbors, saying it "reinforces baseless allegations that hold no foundation in fact".





Comments