Saudi Arabia revokes Qatar Airways licence
RIFT CONTINUES Trump claims credit for row despite USQatar military relations
Saudi Arabia on Tuesday revoked the operating licence of Qatar Airways and ordered its offices to close within 48 hours, as a regional diplomatic crisis escalated.
“The general authority of civil aviation has decided to cancel all licences granted to Qatar Airways and to close all of its offices in the kingdom within 48 hours,” the official SPA news agency said.
Saudi Arabia has also closed its border with Qatar, blocking food imports over what Riyadh says is Doha’s support for extremism.
Qatari share prices closed down 7.58% after five Arab nations — Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Bahrain and Yemen — announced they were cutting diplomatic ties with the country.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt also announced the suspension of all flights to and from Qatar as of Tuesday .
The Gulf states have also ordered Qataris to leave within 14 days and banned their citizens from travelling to the emirate.
President Donald Trump claimed credit for the isolation of Qatar and endorsed it on Tuesday, linking it to his recent visit to the Middle East and his call for cutting funding to terrorism.
“During my recent trip to the Middle East (West Asia) I stated that there can no longer be funding of Radical Ideology. Leaders pointed to Qatar - look!” he tweeted.
“So good to see the Saudi Arabia visit with the King and 50 countries already paying off. They said they would take a hard line on funding … extremism, and all reference was pointing to Qatar. Perhaps this will be the beginning of the end to the horror of terrorism!” he wrote.
The US has a military base in Qatar, Al Udeid Air Base, not far from Doha, which was used by US-led coalition forces for operations against the Islamic State.
A Pentagon statement issued later said the crisis would have “no impact on US military operations”. Qatar’s foreign minister foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said Kuwait is trying to mediate the crisis between Qatar and its neighbours.
Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in a series of telephone calls , has spoken to key players in the dispute in efforts to find a solution, his spokesman said.