• Tillerson takes over as mediator of Persian Gulf dispute, A-4

WASHINGTON –– Efforts to end a 2-week-old crisis in the Persian Gulf shifted to the U.S., as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson canceled a trip to Mexico to try to end a Saudi-led coalition’s isolation of Qatar.

The foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, which is part of the coalition, affirmed a need for a strong Western role in resolving the dispute, telling the British newspaper The Guardian that any agreement would have to be overseen by “Western allies.”

Kuwait and Turkey have been trying to mediate the dispute, which erupted over Qatar’s ties to Iran and Islamist groups, but their attempts stalled as Qatar awaited a list of demands from Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Mr. Tillerson’s role in trying to broker a deal emerged over the weekend when the State Department said he would skip a meeting of the Organization of American States in Cancun, Mexico, on Monday to focus on the Gulf dispute.

Mr. Tillerson assumes the role of Gulf mediator after having forged ties with regional leaders during his years as CEO of Exxon Mobil. Shortly after Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic, transport and trade links, President Donald Trump offered to have him try to broker a solution.

Qatar denies the coalition’s allegations that it supports terrorist groups and Iran.

The controversy in the Gulf puts the U.S. in a difficult position because it is allied with nations on both sides of the dispute.

N. Korea envoys ‘mugged’

North Korea on Sunday accused United States officials of “mugging” its diplomats at Kennedy International Airport by seizing a diplomatic package they were carrying.

A North Korean delegation, returning home from a United Nations conference in New York City, was about to board a plane Friday when more than 20 agents and police officers from the Department of Homeland Security confiscated the package, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying.

He did not disclose what the diplomatic package contained. There was no immediate reaction from the Department of Homeland Security.

Cuban policy criticized

The Russian Foreign Ministry says Mr. Trump’s decision to freeze a detente with Cuba and his verbal attack on the Caribbean island’s leaders mark a return “to the forgotten rhetoric of the Cold War.”