Tillerson wraps up Gulf tour, but impasse grinds on

PanARMENIAN.Net - The top U.S. diplomat wrapped up his first foray in shuttle diplomacy on Thursday, July 13 with little sign of progress in breaking a deadlock between Qatar and four Arab neighbors that are isolating it, The Associated Press reports.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson traveled to the tiny, U.S.-allied Gulf nation for a second time for a lunch meeting with 37-year-old Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani before heading back to Washington later in the day.

Tillerson and his Qatari counterpart appeared before cameras in the capital, Doha, but ignored reporters’ questions before he left.

Tillerson, a former Exxon Mobil CEO with deep experience in the oil-rich Gulf, has been shuttling between Qatar, Saudi Arabia and mediator Kuwait since Monday trying to repair a rift that is dividing some of America’s most important Mideast allies.

Officials have downplayed expectations and say any resolution could be months away.

His clearest achievement has been to secure a memorandum of understanding with Qatar to strengthen its counterterrorism efforts and address shortfalls in policing terrorism funding.

That deal goes to the core of the anti-Qatar quartet’s complaints against the natural gas-rich state: that it provides support for extremist groups.

Qatar vehemently denies the allegation, though it has provided aid that helps Islamist groups that others have branded as terrorists, such as the Muslim Brotherhood and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The anti-Qatar bloc argues the pressure and demands it has placed on Qatar helped lead to the counterterrorism pact, but it says the agreement does not go far enough to end the dispute.

It is holding fast to its insistence that Qatar bow to a 13-point list of demands that includes shutting down Qatar’s flagship Al-Jazeera network and other news outlets, cutting ties with Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, limiting Qatar’s ties with Iran and expelling Turkish troops stationed in the tiny Gulf country.

Qatar has rejected the demands, saying that agreeing to them wholesale would undermine its sovereignty.

It is intent on waiting out the crisis despite its neighbors’ attempts to isolate it.