Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, Yemen, eastern government of Libya, Maldives, Mauritania, and Senegal cut diplomatic ties with Qatar

The latest developments since several countries, including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt, cut ties with Qatar on June 5. (All times local Doha time).

12:20am – TRT reporter, cameraman covering Turkish FM’s Saudi visit ‘briefly detained’

Saudi Arabia detained a Pakistani journalist and his Turkish cameraman working for Turkey’s state-run English language television channel for some 10 hours on Friday, according to a statement by reporter Hasan Abdullah.

TRT’s Abdullah and cameraman Nihat Yayman were in Saudi Arabia to cover a visit by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who held talks with Saudi King Salman as part of mediation efforts to defuse the ongoing diplomatic crisis in the Gulf.

The two TRT workers were detained by Saudi authorities at their hotel in Mecca after a live television appearance, and were asked questions about the row, Abdullah’s statement said.

“We had been there with official ‘Special Visa’ to cover the Turkey-Saudi meeting. The ordeal lasted nearly 10 hours during which we faced multiple interrogations and lock-up,” it said.

17 June 2017
11:01pm – Paris demonstrators demand end to Qatar blockade

Protesters gathered in France’s capital, Paris, to call for the lifting of a land, air and sea blockade imposed by Gulf states on Qatar.

The demonstrators at Place de la Republique said the blockade is a flagrant violation of human rights and amounts to collective punishment.

The protest came a day after Ali Bin Smaikh al-Marri, chairman of Qatar’s National Human Rights Committee (NHRC), called on the UN Human Rights Council to condemn the blockade as it infringes upon the rights of more than 13,000 citizens of the Arab countries involved.

According to a report released by NHRC on Thursday, the actions taken by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, along with Egypt, separated mothers from their children in some cases. Hundreds of complaints were submitted to the NHRC by email, phone and hotlines, or personal visits to its headquarters in Qatar’s capital, Doha.

8:44pm – Protest outside UAE embassy in London in solidarity with Qatar

Demonstrators gathered outside the United Arab Emirates (UAE) embassy in Britain’s capital, London, to protest against an ongoing embargo of Qatar by the UAE, Saudi Arabia and others.

The protesters denounced the land, air and sea blockade imposed on Qatar by its Gulf neighbours amid the region’s worst diplomatic crisis in years.

A spokesman for the demonstrators called the embargo a human rights violation and urged the Gulf states to negotiate a peaceful solution to the dispute.

“The blockade on Qatar contravenes international law,” read one placard held by the protesters outside the UAE embassy.

“We have to say to [US President Donald] Trump, we have to say to the government of Saudi Arabia and to the Emiratis that you will not be successful,” a demonstrator said.

8:30pm – Analyst: Crisis exposes GCC weakness

Sultan Barakat, an academic from the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies at the Doha Institute, says the intervention of outside countries aimed at defusing the crisis makes the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) look weak.

“Given the relations between Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates through the council, this should have been presented months ago, never mind weeks ago,” Barakat told Al Jazeera. “It should have been dealt privately first – those issues should had been handed to Qatar to debate – and then if it was not resolved they could had escalated the issues.”

Barakat said the situation has not been handled properly.

“I think the embargo has been very damaging, both for Qatar and for the rest of the Gulf states, and now to see other nations coming from outside the region trying to resolve the issue with them doesn’t look good either.”

8:08pm – Turkey sent 5,000 tonnes of food to Qatar

Turkey’s Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci says his country has airlifted 5,000 tonnes of foodstuff to Qatar to help ease the embargo imposed by its neighbours amid a major diplomatic crisis.

Speaking to Turkish TV on Saturday, Zeybekci said trucks were also on the way.

“Our shipments via sea route will also begin this weekend,” he said. “Turkey could supply all the humanitarian needs of Qatar.”

6:29pm – Erdogan calls for quick resolution of Gulf crisis

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has renewed a call for the full removal of a Saudi-led blockade imposed on Qatar and appealed to Saudi Arabia to bring a quick end to the crisis through dialogue.

“I believe that the Saudi king has the ability to resolve this crisis quickly,” Erdogan said in Istanbul, calling for an end to the diplomatic crisis before celebrations to mark the end of the Muslim Holy month of Ramadan next week.

“I truly hope it will be resolved before Eid al-Fitr, because it is not appropriate for the Islamic world to be subjected to such a division among its nations. We have the ability to solve these problems through dialogue,” he said during a speech at the Turkish Exporters Assembly meeting in.

“We, here in Turkey, have sought to take a fair stand from the very first moment of the Qatari crisis,” Erdogan added. “We have clearly stated that the accusations against Qatar are not true and that the blockade imposed based on these allegations is unfair.”

4:30pm – Qatar: No shortage of medicines, medical supplies

A land, air and sea blockade imposed on Qatar by a number of Gulf countries has not impacted services in the country’s hospitals, health officials said, adding that there is no shortage of medicines or medical supplies.

Ali Abdullah Al Khater, executive director of corporate communications Department at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), said in a statement to Qatar News Agency that medicines and other important medical supplies can last for many months.

If some of the supply routes are stopped, HMC will find new providers of medicines and medical supplies, he added.

2:15pm – Qatar rejects allegations it attempted to destabilise Bahrain

Qatar has rejected accusations that it attempted to undermine the security in Bahrain.

Bahrain’s official BNA news agency accused Doha of meddling with the country’s internal affairs with the aim of “overthrowing” the regime after broadcasting a phone call on Friday allegedly between an adviser to Qatar’s emir at the time and the leader of Bahrain’s opposition Shia Al-Wefaq movement.

In response, the Qatari foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday that the phone call was part of Qatari efforts to mediate between the Bahraini authorities and opposition in the wake of the 2011 unrest in Bahrain. It added the contacts had been made “with the approval and knowledge of the authorities in Bahrain”.

The ministry also called the broadcast of the phone call a “naive attempt to twist the facts and take them out of context”.

7:20am – Grievances list ‘signals Saudi Arabia not intending to escalate the conflict’

Tamara Kharroub, a senior analyst and assistant executive director at the Arab Center in Washington, DC, told Al Jazeera the fact that Saudi Arabia says it is preparing a list of grievances rather than demands could signal it “is not intending to escalate the crisis any further”.

Kharroub said it is “unlikely that [there will be] a list of demands any more”.

1:04am – Cavusoglu in ‘positive’ Saudi talks on Gulf crisis

Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister, held talks in Saudi Arabia on Friday with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, continuing mediation efforts to resolve the Gulf’s biggest diplomatic crisis in years.

Diplomatic sources told the AFP news agency that “the meeting was positive”, but there were no further specifics.

16 June 2017
12:02am – Tillerson cancels Mexico trip to work on Qatar crisis

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has cancelled his scheduled trip to an Organization of American States meeting in Mexico next week to focus on efforts to defuse the diplomatic crisis in the Gulf.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Tillerson would stay to work the phones to try to convince Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to settle their differences.

Tillerson “will continue his efforts to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East region through in-person meetings and phone conversations with Gulf and regional leaders,” she said in a brief statement.