Doha/Dubai: Kuwait's ruler will travel to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, hoping to heal a damaging rift between Qatar and other Arab states over the former' s alleged support of Islamist militants and of political rival Iran.
Emir Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah will meet with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and seek to resolve the infighting among the Arab world's big powers.
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain severed relations with Qatar and closed their airspace to commercial flights on Monday.
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.
Oil prices also fell on concern that the rift would undermine efforts by OPEC to tighten production.
Qatar and the other Arab states fell out over Doha's alleged support for Islamist militants and Iran - charges Qatar has called baseless.
It said, however, that it would not retaliate and hoped Kuwait would help resolve the dispute.
Foreign Minister Shaikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told Qatar-based Al Jazeera TV that Qatar wants to give Kuwait's ruler the ability to "proceed and communicate with the parties to the crisis and to try to contain the issue".
Qatar's leader, Shaikh 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.
Yemen, Libya's eastern-based government and the Maldives also cut ties.
The United States, Russia, France, Iran and Turkey have all called for the row to be resolved through dialogue.
Some Saudi Arabian and UAE commercial banks were also shunning Qatari banks, holding off on letters of credit, banking sources said on Tuesday.
Kuwait's emir, who has spent decades as a diplomat and mediator in regional disputes, hosted Shaikh Tamim last week as the crisis began brewing.
Monday's decision forbids Saudi, UAE and Bahraini citizens from travelling to Qatar, residing in it or passing through it, instructing their citizens to leave Qatar within 14 days and Qatari nationals were given 14 days to leave those countries.
The measures are more severe than during a previous eight-month rift in 2014, when Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE withdrew their ambassadors from Doha, again alleging Qatari support for militant groups.
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