Saudi Arabia broke diplomatic relations and all land sea and air contacts with fellow Gulf Arab state Qatar on Monday, saying the move was necessary to protect the kingdom from what it described as terrorism and extremism.
The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt also cut ties with Qatar on Monday.
Saudi Arabia's official state news agency, citing an official source, said the kingdom had decided to sever diplomatic and consular relations with Qatar "proceeding from the exercise of its sovereign right guaranteed by international law and the protection of national security from the dangers of terrorism and extremism".
Saudi Arabia cut all land air and sea contacts with Qatar "and urges all brotherly countries and companies to do the same."
Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle Eats Institute, responded on Twitter to the news by pointing out that Qatar "is very heavily reliant on food supplies accessed" through Saudi Arabia, so a closing of the borders poses a "very" serious challenge to Doha.
Qatar is the world's largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and has extensive air and banking links throughout the countries that snapped diplomatic ties. State-owned flag carrier Qatar Airways uses air terminals in all of the countries and has extensive links to Europe, Asia and the United States.
Bahrain, a close Saudi ally, also said on Monday it has cut diplomatic relations with Qatar, accusing its fellow Gulf Arab state of backing terrorism and interfering in Bahrain's internal affairs.
Bahrain is also cutting air and sea contacts with Qatar and was giving its citizens in Qatar 14 days to leave.
The United Arab Emirates' decision to cut ties with Qatar was reported by state news agency WAM, accusing its Gulf Arab neighbor of supporting extremism and undermining regional stability.
The Emirates gave diplomats 48 hours to leave the country, citing their "support, funding and embrace of terrorist, extremist and sectarian organisations," WAM said.
—CNBC contributed to this report.
I just want to know how this is Trump's fault.
Now this is really interesting. Does anyone have more details about this situation?
Would like to see how this plays out with the Syrian conflict. It was Qatar that got bumped for it's Nat gas pipeline to europe for Russia to put theirs through Syria to Iran....
Would also like to see if it plays an effect on Crude prices and if any members go rogue and pump freely now
^ so far Crude is getting an initial "bid" from the news see what happens after the European open later
Wish i understood what this means for the Middle East. I always thought the Saudis and Qtar were very close.
So they enacted a selective Muslim ban?
LMAOOOO
Sounds like there was more to the deal Trump made with KSA than was or revealed. Just spit-balling here but it seems too much of a coincidence that he JUST went over there and gave them a shit load of arms and now their starting shit with the largest exporter of LNG. Shit is about to pop off if so.
I preferred Trump over Clinton but I think we all presumed he was going to keep our tax $ out of the middle east and stop the meddling. More clever schemers at work than myself so we'll all have to watch and wait.
Qatar made themselves big boys by supporting Al Qaeda. They have since been pressured to drop financial support and even expel Hamas. They still have MB ties that the GCC wants to clamp down on. Most likely that's it, but Qatar will probably ask Trump to intervene. At this point the GCC isn't messing around. They know what is at stake and are finally playing varsity ball.
Wölfie66 - lol...hello pot, meet kettle!
For real. Saudi Arabia is the biggest reason there are these radical fucknuggets out there. They funded and supported Wahhabism for decades. ISIS has no fucks to give about the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. And their goal of a caliphate most definitely includes taking the holy land of Mecca. Now they want to do something to try and put a stop to ISIS. Which is the shit they have been pushing and funding for decades.
Michael771 - Qatar made themselves big boys by supporting Al Qaeda. They have since been pressured to drop financial support and even expel Hamas. They still have MB ties that the GCC wants to clamp down on. Most likely that's it, but Qatar will probably ask Trump to intervene. At this point the GCC isn't messing around. They know what is at stake and are finally playing varsity ball.
GCC?
Wasn't it Qatar that we released those former Taliban prisoners to in order to get Bergdhal back? Weren't they supposed to be monitoring those prisoners upon release? I know it was either UAE or Qatar I just can't remember which one.
We have a major base in Qatar. I wonder what the reaction of the US will be.
GCC is Gulf Cooperation Council.
VinegarStrokes -Wasn't it Qatar that we released those former Taliban prisoners to in order to get Bergdhal back? Weren't they supposed to be monitoring those prisoners upon release? I know it was either UAE or Qatar I just can't remember which one.
We have a major base in Qatar. I wonder what the reaction of the US will be.
lol hopefully pack up and get outta town
Interdasting
Didnt clock boy move there before coming back to the states to sue for discrimination or some bullshit?
can we sell them more weapons so they can kill each other ?
Kings21 - Didnt clock boy move there before coming back to the states to sue for discrimination or some bullshit?
Yep.
"Saudi Arabia cited Qatar's support of "terrorist groups aiming to destabilize the region."
Wow, that's some pretty breathtaking hypocrisy by the Saudis.
my guess is the US wants to slow these LNG exports to europe to either take over market share or give Russia a greater stranglehold on europe so they're forced to make their nato protection payments or build arms aka buy from US