Four Arab nations cut diplomatic ties with Qatar early Monday morning, further deepening a rift between Gulf Arab nations over that country’s support for Islamist groups.
Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all announced they would withdraw their diplomatic staff from Qatar, a gas-rich nation that will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Saudi Arabia said Qatari troops would be pulled from its ongoing war in Yemen.
Air, sea traffic to go
All the nations also said they planned to cut air and sea traffic to the peninsular country. It wasn’t immediately clear how that would affect Qatar Airways, one of the region’s major long-haul carriers.
Qatari officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bahrain blamed Qatar’s “media incitement, support for armed terrorist activities and funding linked to Iranian groups to carry out sabotage and spreading chaos in Bahrain” for its decision.
Al-Jazeera blocked
The decision comes after Qatar alleged in late May that hackers took over the site of its state-run news agency and published what it called fake comments from its ruling Emir about Iran and Israel. Its Gulf Arab neighbours responded with anger and blocked Qatari-based media, including the Doha-based satellite news network Al-Jazeera.
Etihad Airways suspends flights
Abu Dhabi's state-owned Etihad Airways said it will suspend all flights to and from Doha from Tuesday morning until further notice.
The last flight from Abu Dhabi to Doha will depart at 02:45 local time on Tuesday, the airline's spokesman said in an email.
The move came after Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE severed ties to Qatar, accusing the wealthy Gulf Arab state of supporting terrorism.
Etihad said their flights on June 5, 2017, will operate as normal.