US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has called on Saudi Arabia and Qatar to stay united and solve their differences, after Riyadh severed ties with Doha and asked its Arab Gulf allies to follow suit, Press T.V reported.
“We certainly would encourage the parties to sit down together and address these differences,” Tillerson said in Sydney on Monday, shortly after Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt also cut ties with the gas-rich Gulf peninsula.
The top US diplomat said it was “important” for Washington that the Arab Gulf Cooperation Council countries “remain united.”
The Riyadh regime said earlier on Monday that it was also closing down all borders with Qatar to “protect its national security from the dangers of terrorism and extremism,” according to the official Saudi Press Agency.
Bahrain, Egypt and the UAE echoed the same reasons as to why they had followed Riyadh’s lead.
The fallout led to Qatar’s expulsion from a Saudi-led coalition, which has been conducting a military aggression against Yemen since March 2015.
R.S