Crisis will have wide-ranging impact

– The Gulf region crisis is likely to have wide-ranging consequences for Qatar and its citizens, as well as the Middle East and Western interests.

Saudi Arabia and several of its allies on Monday cut relations with Qatar, accusing it of supporting extremism, in the biggest diplomatic crisis to have hit the region in years.

Bahrain, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen and the Maldives also severed ties with gas-rich Qatar, which Riyadh accused of supporting groups, including some backed by Iran, “that aim to destabilise the region”.

Qatar denied any support for extremists and accused its neighbours of seeking to put the country under “guardianship”.

Qatar hosts the largest US airbase in the region, which is crucial in the fight against Islamic State group jihadists, and is set to host the 2022 Soccer World Cup.

The dispute comes less than a month after US President Donald Trump visited Saudi Arabia and called for a united Muslim front against extremism.

It also followed weeks of rising tensions between Doha and its neighbours, including Qatari accusations of a concerted media campaign against it and the alleged hacking of its official news agency.

The Gulf states and Egypt said they were severing ties and closing transport links with Qatar, which relies on imports from its neighbours.

The Gulf states have ordered Qataris to leave within 14 days and banned their own citizens from travelling to the emirate.

Saudi Arabia also closed its borders with Qatar, effectively blocking food and other exports and prompting shoppers to flood Doha’s supermarkets.

In one store, queues were up to 25-people deep as shoppers piled trollies high with supplies from rice to nappies.

“It’s a cycle of panic and I needed to get pasta,” said Ernest, a Lebanese national pushing two trollies.

Riyadh said its measures were the result of “gross violations committed by authorities in Qatar”.

It accused Doha of harbouring “terrorist and sectarian groups that aim to destabilise the region including the Muslim Brotherhood, Daesh (IS) and al-Qaeda”.

Gulf states have long accused Qatar of supporting extremist groups, in particular the Muslim Brotherhood. – AFP