gulf crisis

U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff David Goldfein said on Saturday he was hopeful a bitter dispute between Gulf Arab states could soon end and urged them to unify military capabilities as tensions with Iran simmer.

DOHA: Qatar has blacklisted 20 people and eight organisations as "terrorist," nine months after finding itself isolated in the Gulf over alleged support for extremists and their sympathisers. The list, published by the interior ministry late Wednesday, includes 12 Qatari nationals, two Saudi Arabians, four Egyptians and two Jordanians. The move comes nine months after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt cut diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar, accusing Doha of bankrolling extremists and…

KUWAIT CITY: Regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia snubbed its former ally Qatar at the annual summit on Tuesday of Gulf monarchies as King Salman stayed away despite the presence of the Qatari emir. The crisis-hit Gulf Cooperation Council summit was going ahead in Kuwait City despite uncertainty over which leaders from among Riyadh and its allies would in the end join their Qatari rival for the talks. The future of the six-nation GCC -- formed 36 years ago to bring together energy-rich Gulf Arab states -- appeared to be…

DOHA: Gulf Cup organisers on Thursday said Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain had "withdrawn" from the Qatar-hosted tournament, amid a deepening political crisis in the region. Tournament bosses said they had received no response from the three federations to questions about their participation in the competition, scheduled to start on December 22. A deadline for Saudi, UAE and Bahrain to accept a written invitation from the Gulf Cup Football Federation (GCFF) passed earlier this week. "There was no…

DOHA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged his country’s continued military support for Qatar during a visit to Doha on Wednesday, according to state media, amid an ongoing Gulf political crisis. Erdogan also signalled the "readiness" of Turkey's private sector to help Qatar with its multi-billion projects for the 2022 football World Cup, according to the Qatar News Agency. He held talks with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani during the visit, reported QNA. It also said the two countries signed…

DOHA: Qatar is to restore full diplomatic relations with regional power Iran, its foreign ministry announced Thursday, in a significant move at a time of diplomatic friction within the Gulf. A statement from the ministry said  our aimed to bolster relations between the two countries, which share the world's largest natural gas field. "The State  announced today that its ambassador to Tehran will return to exercise its diplomatic duties," read the statement. Qatar was also seeking to "strengthen bilateral relations…

SANA’A: Air raids on Yemen's rebel-held capital on Wednesday killed more than 30 people, including civilians, local and international aid organisations said. Hussein al-Tawil, head of the Sanaa branch of Yemen's Red Crescent, said at least 35 people were killed in raids on the northern outskirts of Sanaa, as rescuers continued to pull bodies from the rubble. An official with an international aid organisation confirmed to AFP that at least 30 people had been killed in a series of strikes on Sanaa, which is home to the…

DUBAI: Two months into a bitter Gulf crisis, Saudi Arabia's use of a previously unknown Qatari royal family member has opened a new -- and bizarre -- front in the conflict. On August 17, it was announced that Saudi Arabia's King Salman had ordered the reopening of the Qatar border to allow pilgrims from the emirate to join the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. The decision, at first glance an apparent thawing in a crisis ongoing since June 5, was apparently taken after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met an obscure…

DOHA: Qatar's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, is to address the nation Friday night in a televised speech, the first since Saudi Arabia and its allies severed ties with the emirate. The official QNA news agency, quoting the emir's office, said Sheikh Tamim would deliver his speech at around 1900 GMT to address "the future orientation of country in light of the current Gulf crisis". On June 5, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt cut ties with them accusing it of backing extremism and…

DOHA: French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in Doha on Saturday that Paris wants to assist Kuwait-led mediation on the crisis between Qatar and four other Arab states. "France should be a facilitator in the mediation" led by Kuwait, Le Drian told reporters following talks with his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani. Le Drian flew in to Qatar at the start of a Gulf tour aimed at helping defuse the crisis pitting Qatar against Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and…