Qatar says Kuwait trying to mediate, solve Gulf crisis
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Kuwait is trying to mediate a Gulf crisis in which Arab countries have cut diplomatic ties to Qatar and moved to isolate the energy-rich travel hub from the outside world, Qatar's foreign minister said early Tuesday.
The biggest diplomatic crisis in the Persian Gulf since the 1991 US-led war against Iraq pits several nations against Qatar, which is home to some 10,000 American troops and a major U.S. military base. Airlines suspended flights and residents nervous about the peninsula's lone land border closing cleaned out grocery store shelves.
In an interview with Doha-based satellite news network Al-Jazeera, Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said Kuwait's ruler had asked Qatar's ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, to hold off on giving a speech about the crisis late Monday night.
"He received a call from the emir of Kuwait asking him to postpone it in order to give time to solve the crisis," Sheikh Mohammed said.
Still, the minister struck a defiant tone, rejecting those "trying to impose their will on Qatar or intervene in its internal affairs."
