Kuwait seeks to mediate Arab crisis over Qatar

Kuwait's ruler will travel to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, hoping to heal a damaging rift between Qatar and powerful Arab states over the former' s alleged support of Islamist militants and of political and religious rival Iran, leading several countries have cut ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorism in the Gulf region.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain severed relations with Qatar and closed their airspace to commercial flights on Monday.

Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have given Qatari nationals two weeks to leave, and banned their own citizens from travelling to Qatar.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE closed all transport links by air, land and sea.

The UAE and Egypt expelled Qatari diplomats, giving them 48 hours to leave, and Saudi Arabia closed down a local office of al-Jazeera.

Qatar has denied funding extremists, though western officials have accused it of allowing or even encouraging funding of Sunni extremists such as al-Qaida’s branch in Syria, once known as the Nusra Front.

Qatar – an energy-rich travel hub – shares its only land border with Saudi Arabia and relies heavily on importing food, much of it from Gulf countries.

The crisis could also hit exports, including goods such as machinery, electronic equipment or livestock transported by road to Saudi Arabia.

In a sign of the potential consequences for the Qatari economy, a number of banks in the region began stepping back from business dealings with Qatar. Saudi Arabia's central bank advised banks in the kingdom not to trade with Qatari banks in Qatari riyals, sources said.

Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber al-Sabah will meet with Saudi Arabia's King Salman and seek to resolve the worst infighting among the Arab world's strongest and richest powers in decades.

Al-Sabah has called Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and "urged him for restraint and not to take any measure that could escalate" the situation in the Gulf, according to the state-run KUNA news agency.

Qatar's leader, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, spoke by telephone overnight with his counterpart in Kuwait and, in order to allow Kuwait to mediate, decided to put off a planned speech to the nation, the foreign minister said.

The United States, Russia, France, Iran and Turkey have all called for the row to be resolved through dialogue.